President Obama is expected to announce executive action on immigration this Thursday. The word around the Hill has focused mainly on the undocumented immigrants, but it is likely that the President’s executive action will include plans to address employment based immigration as well.

If President Obama decides to issue executive orders regarding employment based immigration, there are a few issues that he may touch on:

1. Recapturing unused Employment Based Green Card Visas: In the past 2 decades, over 200,000 green cards went unused because of the per-country cap and processing delays. If the President decides to issue an executive order to recapture unused green card visas, this could clear up backlogs in the EB2 (and possibly the EB3 category), making priority dates current.

• What this means – Those individuals who have an approved Labor Certification, can immediately file the I-140 Immigrant Petition and I-485 Adjustment of Status application. This is why it is so important to take the first step and have a PERM labor certification application filed on your behalf if your employer has made a permanent job offer to you.

2. Not counting family members of Green Card applicants: Unlike with the H-1B visa, primary green card applicants are not the only ones counted towards the cap. Instead, the green card applicant is counted against the 140,000 annual limit along with any other family members. Many legal experts have noted that a reasonable interpretation of Section 203(d) of the INA can be made in favor of only counting the primary applicant and his/her family as a single unit.

• What this means – Dependents will not be counted toward the annual cap for employment based green card visas. Because more than half of the annual limit is used up by dependents, employment based green cards that are issued could double! Moreover, if this action is taken together with the recapturing of unused green cards, both the EB2 AND EB3 preference categories will be clear of the backlog, making priority dates current for even those individuals who had cases filed under the EB3 category. Yes, for those individuals born in India and China as well!!!

3. Issuing EADs for H-4 Visa Holders: Currently, spouses of foreign workers on an H-1B temporary work visa are not authorized to work in the U.S. This is a cause for concern because many families are left to be supported solely on one income and many of those potential workers are sitting at home instead of using their skills to contribute to their family and to the U.S. economy.

• What this means – The President is likely to finalize the H-4 EAD regulation that was proposed earlier this year. When this occurs, H-4 dependent spouses can be issued an EAD so that they can legally work in the U.S. Note, in order for this to apply, the foreign worker on H-1B must (1) have obtained H-1B extensions beyond the 6^th year limit based on a PERM Labor Certification Application or I-140 Immigrant Petition that has been pending for at least 365 days or (2) have an approved I-140 Immigrant Petition. This is another reason to have the green card process started as soon as possible!

I anticipate that an execute order issued will address some, if not all, of the points mentioned above. There is no reason why these changes should not be made; these changes will not only reduce the shortage of skilled workers in areas such as the ever growing IT Industry, but they will create an opportunity for those individuals waiting in a never ending line to provide this country with innovation through entrepreneurship.

I will be providing updates regarding the expected action as they come in, so keep a lookout! You can watch live at www.whitehouse.gov , November 20, 2014, 8pmET.