The USA has increased the number of requirements for obtaining a work visa: many are forced to leave

The US government has increased the number of “Evidence Request” (RFE) requirements it sends to applicants who want an H-1B visa. Now many candidates cannot get a visa. Writes about it Crunchbase news.

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Barbara Jenzer became the youngest woman product manager in the history of Splunk Corporation, was unable to obtain a visa through the lawyers of the company from San Francisco. So she hired immigration lawyers, paid over 10 000 dollars from her pocket, and hoped for the best.

Since then, Jenzer has received the “Request for Evidence” (RFE), a document that the United States government sends to applicants as an additional step in the immigration process for a visa. Simply put, an RFE request means that the government wants to know more about someone else's application before refusing or accepting a visa application that allows a foreign national to work in the United States. And, according to Genzer, if you are not on the Forbes list or not a Nobel laureate, it is difficult to do.

According to the woman, if she is denied a visa to the United States, she may have to move to Canada, a country with less stringent immigration laws. But the lack of clarity affects not only the salary of the corporation, but also all aspects of its life.

On the subject: The number of denials in US visas over the past two years has increased by 40%

“You can’t plan for anything,” Gentzer said. “You don't know whether to buy nice furniture because you don't know if you're going to live here next year... It's like a sword hanging over you.”

The case with Genzer is not the only one. Over time, the U.S. government has quietly increased the number of RFE requirements it sends to applicants seeking an H-1B visa.

And with the increase in RFE requirements, there are more denials of visas. Experts say Trump’s executive order “Buy American and hire Americans” will serve as a catalyst for increasing failures. His administration’s order to “prevent fraud within the immigration system” imposed a policy ensuring that H-1B visas are issued to “the most qualified or highly paid beneficiaries.”

According to RFE, a technician must prove their worth with extensive documentation and detailed recommendations from an industry expert.

Tahmina Watson, an immigration lawyer since 2006, said the vague language in the RFE is intentional. According to her, although the demand for additional documentation has increased, the transparency of how to meet these increased requirements remains unclear.

Through her practice, she found out what this unknown gray area was and figured out other cases of candidates deserving a visa.

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“By October 2017, we started getting denials of cases that would have been approved two months ago with the same documentation,” she said.

She added that some groups suffered "disproportionately."

“Financial analysts and computer programmers were among the first victims of these RFEs,” Watson said. Tech startups are especially at risk, she said.

Plus, smaller startups feel the burden of rewards more significantly, Watson said.

But, according to one investor, Manan Mehta of Unshackled Ventures, the cost of the immigration process should still not deter a startup from investing in an employee.

Unshackled Ventures invests in immigrant-founded startups. Mehta said that in his experience, about four out of five visas made with premium processing — an expedited version of the application process often done by entrepreneurs who need to get everything done in a tight time frame — will face an RFE. And this is not a “totally negative thing.”

On the subject: Everything you need to know about US work visas

“I think this definition of high-skill work needs to be modernized, and the Department of Labor's job was to update this definition,” Mehta said. H-1B visa applicants for IT outsourcing were flooding USCIS, he said, “and it was just making a mockery of the immigration system.”

Mehta added: “We are still receiving and approving all our visas one hundred percent.”

Jeff Goldman, who has worked in the field of immigration law for 27 years, has not seen the changes in the level of approval of visas that he receives since the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. However, he found other flaws in Trump's mentality regarding immigration.

The amount of taxpayer money, labor and hours Trump spends "fighting and fighting and fighting in court" is "a disgrace," Goldman said. “Trump fights any progressive immigration that creates jobs.”

However, Goldman advises his clients not to “get scared” or not “stop following their dreams.” The United States remains the place where "all the entrepreneurs of the world would like to be."

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However, Watson said that there are negative consequences of such actions.

“With every new requirement, another brick is added to the RFE. Every paragraph they add is another brick added to the wall. Every word is another building block,” says Watson.

“Ultimately,” she said, referring to the Trump administration, “they are trying to make sure that immigrants don’t come to the United States anymore.”

And this is a wall that many young ambitious professionals and startups may not be able to destroy.

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