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The Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 101–649, 104 Stat. 4978, enacted November 29, 1990) was signed into law by George H. W. Bush on November 29, 1990. It was first introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy in 1989. It was a national reform of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It increased total, overall immigration to allow 700,000 immigrants to come to the U.S. per year for the fiscal years 1992–94, and 675,000 per year after that. It provided a family-based immigration visa, created five distinct employment based visas, categorized by occupation, and a diversity visa program that created a lottery to admit immigrants from "low admittance" countries or countries whose citizenry was underrepresented in the U.S. Besides these immigrant visas there were also changes in nonimmigrant visas like the H-1B visa for highly skilled workers. There were also cutbacks in the allotment of visas available for extended relatives. Congress also created the temporary protected status (TPS visa), which the Attorney General may provide to immigrants who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary condition. It specifically benefited citizens of El Salvador. The act also lifted the English testing process for naturalization that had been imposed in the Naturalization Act of 1906 for permanent residents who are over 55 and have been living in the United States for fifteen years as a permanent resident, and eliminated exclusion of homosexuals under the medically unsound classification of "sexual deviant" that was in the 1965 Act. George H. W. Bush is quoted as saying, "I am also pleased to note that this Act facilitates immigration not just in numerical terms, but also in terms of basic entry rights of those beyond our borders." Background Prior to the introduction of the Immigration act of 1990 from Ted Kennedy there was talk in the House and Senate about immigration reform, specifically about the number of immigrants that were allowed to enter the United States. In 1988, the House voted against a proposal that would limit the amount of immigrants' family members who could enter the United States. With the system at the time allowing for unlimited family members to enter, immigration reform opponent groups largely contended with the allowance of this system. The Senate then debated immigration reform in 1989, before Ted Kennedy proposed the Immigration Act of 1990, which continued family-based immigrant visas. The most important part of the Immigration Act of 1990 is the increase in immigrants that are allowed to come into the US, and subsequently allowed millions of immigrants entry over the ensuing decades. Specifically Title I, sec 104, which increased the number of asylees able to enter the country. In this same title, the bill allowed for an increase in family based as well as visa based immigration. Compared to the bill's initial introduction in the Senate, the final draft's ultimate objective differs little from what was intended. However, wordage of the law's official draft varied considerably from the original. For example, in the final version's antecedent, provisions contained numerous specific immigration caps for different categories, instead of the simple 675,000 per year found in the law. Much of this language used in Title I was eliminated in the Act's final form. Family reunification Family reunification remained a priority as it had been in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The 1990 Act expanded the number of family-based immigration visas allotted per year to 480,000 but also made the definition of family more exclusive by limiting it to immediate family members. Employment-based immigration Employment-based immigration was divided amongst five occupational categories in the 1990 Immigration Act (the 1965 Act had only two). The Act provided 140,000 visas per year for job-based immigration. These categories were: EB-1 visa (for an alien of extraordinary ability) EB-2 visa EB-3 visa EB-4 visa EB-5 visa The EB 4 visa is vague but has to do with religious workers who wish to continue their career in the US. The distinct category exists because the other visas require employer contact and labor certification through the US Department of Labor, and the religious worker visa applicant is not strictly limited to employer-sponsored entry. In addition to having to be employer-sponsored, the foreigner usually must be applying to work in an area of labor shortage in the US, or the employer must bargain on the foreigner's behalf and prove that it exhausted all other domestic recruiting efforts. Diversity Immigrant Visas Diversity Immigrant Visa was a new, important facet of the amendment was for the first time been instituted in national immigration policy. "Starting in 1991, every year the Attorney General, decides from information gathered over the most recent five year period the regions or country that are considered High Admission or Low Admission States" from that analysis, citizens of certain nations are deemed eligible or ineligible to apply for a diversity visa. "A High Admission region or country is one that has had 50,000 immigrants or more acquire a permanent residency visa. The High Admission regions are not given visas under this act in order to promote diversity." Starting in fiscal year 1995, the cap of 55,000 visas were allotted as "diversity" visas. The number is now more around 50,000. Changes have been made to the diversity visa requirements almost every other year (if not more often) since 1990 to assess which countries qualify. In 1990 the qualifying countries were Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (including Guadeloupe and New Caledonia), Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland and Tunisia and the United Kingdom (including Bermuda and Gibraltar). There are a number of qualifications to obtaining this visa besides being from one of the qualifying zones. Applicants must: Have a high school diploma; or Have two years' work experience and two years' job training In addition, the SOS keeps track of age, occupation, education, etc. of all immigrants obtaining this visa. The selection of qualifying applicants is random. Someone approved and granted a visa has family unification extend to such visa holders. Children and spouses are eligible for permanent residency. The policy, notably, positively affected displaced Tibetans from 1991 to 1994, who were given 1,000 visas per year. Comments from the Bush administration George Bush: "S. 358 accomplishes what this Administration sought from the outset of the immigration reform process: a complementary blending of our tradition of family re.... Discover the Tracy Wasem popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tracy Wasem books.