Immigration in US – For a new employment-based visa pathway—the bridge visa—

Michel Cournoyer

February 26

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) today proposed the creation of a new employment-based visa pathway—the bridge visa—to enable the United States to better leverage immigration to meet its labor market needs, address rapidly changing economic and demographic realities, and remain competitive at a time when an increasing number of countries are vying for top global talent and for workers needed to complement their own aging populations.

Though Congress has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to update employment-based visa policies that were last revised in 1990, the forces shaping the U.S. labor market in a 21st century global economy are inexorable, further exposing how misaligned the immigration system is with today's realities. Already, immigrants and their U.S.-born children are sustaining labor force growth in an economy that has millions more job vacancies than it has available workers; two decades from now, immigrants are expected to be the only driver of U.S. population increases. Beyond demographics, the labor market is being rapidly reshaped by digital transformation, changing skill needs, global competition and decreasing geographic mobility among U.S. workers, among other factors.

A new policy brief out today, A New Way Forward for Employment-Based Immigration: The Bridge Visa, outlines MPI's proposal for a temporary-to-permanent visa stream that would help meet employers' demand for workers across industries and skill levels, be flexible enough to accommodate both circular migrants and those wishing to remain permanently in the United States and ensure protections for U.S.-born and immigrant workers alike.

The bridge visa would flexibly expand and shrink in scale based on the deliberations of an independent expert body that would adjust the annual cap to reflect labor market demands, immigration trends and other relevant factors. To ensure that bridge visa holders are not being used to replace U.S. workers or undermine wages and working conditions, labor market testing should happen up front.

While the U.S. economy continues to draw sizable numbers of foreign workers through other channels—notably, family-based and humanitarian streams—such pathways do not select immigrants based on whether they are a good fit for job openings or whether their skills match demand in strategic sectors that will drive future economic growth. The result is that U.S. employers often have to rely on temporary visa programs or at times hire workers without authorization to work legally in the United States.

The bridge visa would allow U.S. employers across industries to sponsor foreign workers for an initial three-year period, which workers could renew once. Those desiring only a temporary U.S. stay would have the option to re-enter on another bridge visa in the future. The visa would therefore create a pathway for circular migration, mostly unavailable in the current immigration system. Workers wishing to stay in the United States for the long term could self-sponsor for permanent residence after having renewed their bridge visa once, provided they have remained stably employed in the United States.

"The overarching goal would be to generate a lasting framework that is flexible enough to adapt over time to changing economic and demographic realities and to the shifting push and pull factors shaping migration to the United States—and, crucially, that does not force the country to wait several decades for Congress to find supermajority support for future reforms," analysts Julia Gelatt and Muzaffar Chishti write.

Beyond outlining the bridge visa proposal, the policy brief delves into three issues integral to making this new visa stream work: 1) strategies for ensuring that the bridge visa does not replace or harm U.S. workers, 2) policies to ensure ethical recruitment of bridge visa workers and 3) mechanisms to ensure the processing of bridge visa applications is as smooth and efficient as possible, while still ensuring needed vetting takes place.

The brief is part of a multiyear MPI project, Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: Building a Responsive, Effective Immigration System. MPI also has launched a Global Skills and Talent Initiative that is exploring the role that immigration can play in addressing current and future workforce needs in rapidly evolving labor markets.