Trump administration wants to deprive foreign workers of the right to extend H-1B visas

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The Department of Homeland Security is considering an initiative by the administration of President Donald Trump, which proposes to prohibit the renewal of the H-1B visa, under which qualified specialists work in the United States, for the period of considering the application for a green card.

Under current law, the visa H-1B gives the right to work in the United States for 3 years and can be extended for another 3 year after its completion, writes Times of India.

At the same time, if at the end of these six years, the H-1B visa holder applies for a green card, his work visa can be extended an unlimited number of times while the application for permanent resident status will be under consideration.

Due to the large lists of people who want to receive green cards and the annual limit for issuing these documents in the United States to citizens of each country, some immigrants spend US years 10-12 until their application for a green card is finally considered (especially for applicants from China and India, the number of which significantly exceeds the limits set by the US government).

The Trump administration, through a new initiative, wants to end this practice. If the administration’s proposal is approved, the H-1B visa holder, who applied for a green card after 6 years in the USA, will have to leave the territory of the States before the deadline for processing the application.

Technically, this solution is correct, since the H-1B program is designed to solve the shortage of skilled workers in the United States and is not intended to be a reason for immigration.

However, over the years, skilled workers mainly from Asian countries have used this program as an impetus for obtaining resident status, and then a US citizen. Among them are such legendary personalities in the American IT industry as Hindus by origin Satya Nadelu and Sundar Pichai, who are top managers Microsoft and Google respectively.

Even during the presidential campaign, Trump spoke of the need to reduce the H-1B visa program, because he was convinced that there was no shortage of skilled workers in the United States.

Changes to the current H-1B rules will affect Indian skilled workers the most. More than 50% of the 85 H-000B visas issued annually are to Indian workers. Second place goes to workers from China, and third place goes to Mexicans.

This is not Trump's first initiative to limit the scope of H-1B visa holders. In December, the White House proposed abolish the right of H-1B spouses to work in the USA.

In February 2015, the administration of Barack Obama allowed the spouses of such migrants to legally seek employment in the United States in order to “reduce the economic burden and personal stresses” for highly skilled immigrants. Now Trump wants to reverse this decision.

The H-1B visa is played out and issued on the principle of a lottery to highly qualified specialists who want to come to work in the USA - on average, about 65 thousands of foreign specialists a year become “winners”. This program is most popular among employers in the IT industry (about 1% of employees work on an H-15B visa Facebook).

Read also on ForumDaily:

Seven facts about the H-1B visa

How to get a work visa in the US

Everything you need to know about US work visas

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