Joe Biden’s New H-1B Visa Plan: More Jobs For Indians, Permanent Green Cards, Family Immigration Policy

The new US president Joe Biden has an updated plan for H1B visas. He will be increasing the number of high-skilled visas including H1B. So, there will be further no cap on visas given and limit on employment-based H1B visas will be removed. This will benefit the Indian professionals immensely working in the US.

So, the Trump immigration policies will go through a sea change under the Biden administration.

Biden will soon reverse the moves made by Trump administration to revoke work permits to the spouses of H-1B visas. The previous changes have affected many Indian families in the US. The H1B visa program has been modified a number of times.

The previous Government also redefined the ‘speciality’ occupation. It prevents firms from hiring overseas workers with any degree. So you will need to have a degree specific to the job under the speciality occupation. So no more anybody can be recruited for a cheaper package.

So, Joe Biden will first reform temporary visas. It’s expected that wage-based allocation process will be established to ensure they it is in line with the labour market and is not being used to undermine wages. The biggest change is going to be the removal of any limit on high-skilled visas.

Biden with Congress will eliminate the limits on employment-based visas by country.

Currently the number of employment-based visas including H1B is capped at 140,000 a year. The Biden government will increase the number of visas awarded for permanent and employment-based immigration. The demand for H1B visa saw a slump, and but the upcoming modifications will change the scenario. 

In the next move, Biden will offer the foreign graduates with US doctoral programme green card with their degree. He believes losing the highly trained workers to other economies creates own economic competitiveness.

The H1B visa holders will have to work and reside in the city or specific county petitioned to them.

Biden also supports family-based immigration. So he will allow applicants along with a temporary non-immigrant visa until a permanent visa is processed. This will let spouse and children of green card holders to bs immediate relatives and hence are exempted from any kind of limits.

Bloomberg earlier reported that it’s not a good choice. The outcome is said to be exact opposite and called it to be a ‘defeat’ for the US workforce. The report also claimed that the jobs increase consumer demand and help companies to innovate, create new products / services and expand in other areas.

Going by the estimates, currently two-thirds of America’s H1B visa holders are recruited in the ‘computer-related’ fields, and it’s known to be in huge demand and shortage of workers.

As per the Labor Department data the unemployment rate for computer programmers stands at 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2020. In comparison, the entire US workforce has a 8.8 percent unemployment rate. The total vacancies in the technology sector have been growing, and now stands at 4.7 percent since April 2020.