President Donald Trump has extended the freeze on the most sought-after H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas by three months
If you are a techie who aspires to live the American Dream, or your family or friends work in the technology sector and are looking forward to get the H1-B visa or looking forward to renew the same, then this story is for you. However, all is not well…Please read to know more.
Extension Freeze on Various Work Visas Including H-1B:-
In order to protect American workers, US President Donald Trump has extended the freeze on the most sought-after H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas by three months. Trump said that even though therapeutics and COVID-19 vaccines are recently available, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realized.
The US government issued H-1B visas by the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1 to many Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies. This particular decision will impact these the most.
Through two proclamations, one on April 22 and another on June 22 last year was the freeze on various work visas categories was ordered by Trump.
On Thursday December 31, just a few hours before the same would expire, Trump issued yet another proclamation which intends to extend the freeze. President said that the reasons for which he had issued such a restriction has not changed.
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H) that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, that require theoretical or technical expertise.
The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
This extension means that now they would have to wait at least till the end of March before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping.
There are many Indian IT professionals who are seeking renewal of their H-1B visas. They will be hugely impact too by the same.
COVID-19 & US Labour Market :-
Trump said in his proclamation that “The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to significantly disrupt Americans” livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the United States of 6.7 per cent reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February of 2020”.
The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is higher than the comparable number present during June, and while therapeutics and vaccines are recently available for an increasing number of Americans, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realized, he said.
‘Moreover, actions such as States’ continued imposition of restrictions on businesses still affect the number of workers that can be hired as compared with February of 2020,” Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation may be extended if necessary.
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