RAISE Act

Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act or the RAISE Act

This bill eliminates the diversity visa program, replaces employment-based immigration programs with a points-based system, and imposes various limits on various types of immigration.

Aliens that reach the minimum number of points may apply for a points-based visa. Points are awarded for various characteristics including age, English language proficiency, education level, and investments made in the United States. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shall periodically invite the highest scoring applicants to petition for visas.

The bill limits eliminates various preference allocations (visa categories subject to various annual caps) for family-sponsored immigrant visas, such as those for the adult children of U.S. citizens. Only the spouses and children of U.S. citizens shall qualify as immediate relatives, whereas currently parents also qualify (visas for immediate relatives are not subject to direct numerical caps). The bill creates a nonimmigrant visa for such alien parents.

The bill reduces the baseline annual cap for family-sponsored visas from 480,000 to 88,000 and revises the methods for calculating the cap. It also imposes a limit of 50,000 refugees admitted in any fiscal year.

An alien who received needs-based public benefits shall not be naturalized as a U.S. citizen until the individual who signed the affidavit of support for the alien has reimbursed the federal government for such benefits.

The bill imposes various reporting requirements related to the points-based system.