Trump freezes H1B, H4 visas for rest of the year
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday extended the suspensionofgreencardstillthe endoftheyearandexpandeditto covernon-immigrantworkvisas such as H-1B that go mostly to Indian professionals hired by both American companies and Indian IT services giants such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys.
Thepresidenthasalsodirected officials to overhaultheh-1bprogrammethrougharegulation to turn it merit-based by prioritizing highest paid applicants.
Indians will be disproportionately impacted onboth counts as the largest beneficiaries of the H-1bprogrammeaccountingfor morethan70% of the 85,000 visas issued annually.
Senior Trumpadministration officials said the suspendedwork visas included H-1B (H-4 is for spousesandunmarriedchildren of H-1bvisa-holders, andsomeof themwithh-4eadareallowedto work, not all), H-2B for low skill workers, some categories of J visas for cultural and education workers and L-1 for intra-company transfers. They were intended to ensure Americans hadthefirst shot at jobs in the aftermath of record job losses caused by Covid-19 related lockdowns, and are expected to free up 525,000 jobs.
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Political observers linked the suspensions to Trump’sdesireto seal thesupportofhisbaseahead of his re-election bid in November. Some conservatives have viewed the work visa programmes as a threat for Americans, and Trump is tapping into it. Activists campaigning for a better deal for Indian H-1B visa holdersinlineforgreencardsay an estimated 2 million Indians will be impacted by the suspensions, including H-1B visa holders, those waiting for their Green Cards and those on L-1.
Leon Fresco, a consultant for Immigrationvoice, anadvocacy group for Green Card hopefuls, wroteontwitterthatthesuspension orders could be challenged in court. Chinese are the second largest beneficiaries of these programmes, buttheyarealreadyon notice from the Trump administration because of the coronavirus disease (which originated in China) .
Equally significant with last
ing impactforindian professionals wantingtoworkintheusand Indianitservicescompanieswill be the permanent changes that the president is ordering.
Theelectronic lottery system, which is used to pick the 85,000 successful applicants, will be replacedbyamerit-basedsystem thatwill prioritize thehighestsalaried applicants to “get the best and the brightest”, a senior administration official told reporters .