WASHINGTON: There’s good news and bad news for Indians yearning to migrate to America. President Trump is backing a bill that will broadly facilitate high skilled, educationally-privileged immigration — India’s forte — to the United States at the expense of family ties-based immigration that has been the primary route for more than half-a-century.Indians use both routes. But the educated, high-skilled, English-proficient elite has always had it harder because they typically go through the H1-B guest worker route that involves many hurdles, in contrast to those who go through family ties, a less exacting pathway. In either case, Indians are also constrained by country specific quota — seven per cent — which means that Nepalese or Pakistanis (fewer in number) have a greater chance of getting US residency than Indians.But under the new legislation proposed by two Republican Senators and backed by President Trump, the educated elite will have first dibs on permanent residency — also called Green Cards — coveted by many prospective immigrants that usually and eventually results in citizenship.Under the proposals contained in the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, young, educated, English-speaking immigrant applications will be favoured in a points-based system similar to that used by Canada and Australia.Here’s how the points system will work: Good education, particularly if it is a US-minted degree, earns big points: An applicant with a US high school diploma or the foreign equivalent gets one point; a foreign bachelor's degree earns five points, while a US bachelor's degree earns six points. A foreign master's degree in STEM fields earns seven points while a US master's earns eight points. A foreign professional degree or doctorate earns 10 points and a US equivalent earns 13.Youth, needed to subsidize America’s aged, gets priority. Those aged 18 through 21 gets six points, ages 22 through 25 gets eight points, and ages 26 through 30 get 10 points. After that, it’s downhill: aged 31 through 35 getting eight points, 36 through 40 getting six points, ages 41 through 45 getting four points and ages 46 through 50 getting two points. Minors under the age of 18 and those over the age of 50 receive no points, though they can still apply.Points are also given out for English proficiency, as determined by standardized English test. Anyone with less than a 60th percentile proficiency gets no points, those between 60th and 80th percentile get six points, someone in the 80th to 90th percentile range earns 10 points, those with a 90th percentile proficiency or above earns 11 points, and someone in the 100th percentile range earns 12 points.Topping it all is whether an individual has a job offer in the US and how good the offer is: Five points are awarded if an applicant has a job offer that will pay at least 150% of median household income in the state where he or she will be employed; eight points if pay is 200% of median income, and 13 points if it's 300% the median.Here’s the upshot if (and it’s a big IF) the legislation passes: A young Indian ward between age 26 to 30 who has just wrapped up a Ph.D in U.S, is proficient in English, and who has a job offer of about $ 160,000 per year or more (approximately three times the national median income, will be a shoo-in for one of the 140,000 employment-based Green Cards the U.S issues annually.Thousands of Indians who go to the U.S for higher studies — and who have to jump through the H1-B hoops right now -- come in this category. In fact, a young Indian with an Indian master's degree who is proficient in English and who has an job offer from a U.S company will have a shot at a Green Card Of course, this also means India could be leached of even more of its best and brightest.Those who might be hit will be the poorly-educated, barely English-proficient brother/ sister/uncle/nephew of a U.S citizen who snags a Green Card thanks to family ties, and who goes on to work in a gas station instead of Google or in Dunkin Donuts franchise instead of Facebook.The RAISE Act, sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, would reduce the current annual legal residency permits of one million to less than 500,000 within a decade, mainly through cuts in such family-based immigration.According to a White House fact sheet, ''for decades, low-skilled and unskilled immigration into the U.Ss has surged, depressing wages and harming America’s most vulnerable citizens.''''Our system does not prioritize the most highly skilled immigrants — just 1 out of every 15 immigrants to the United States comes here because of their skills,'' the White House paper notes. ''On average, 1 million immigrants are accepted into the United States for legal permanent residency annually, and most of them are low or unskilled workers. This influx is the equivalent of adding more than the population of San Francisco to the country every year.''''More than 50 percent of all immigrant households receive welfare benefits, compared to only 30 percent of native households in the United States that receive welfare benefits,'' the White House note added.But the proposals raised the hackles of many Democrats and liberals who argued that it essentially violates the American credo of helping the ''poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free,'' words that are enshrined on the Statue of Liberty, in favor of elitist immigration.