Recent Changes to U.S. H1-B Visas and What It Means for Businesses
A recent executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump is set to suspend many new work H1-B visas until the end of 2020, thus preventing foreign workers (and their spouses) from seeking residence while working U.S. jobs. The order’s intent claims to “put American workers first when hiring… at a time when so many Americans are out of work [due to the coronavirus recovery]”. The motion is not a full curb on foreign worker immigration, however. The order also claims that the new program “will prioritize those workers who are offered the highest wage, ensuring the highest-skilled applicants are admitted”.
Like a number of the Trump administration’s acts of legislation, the announcement of this order was met with a polarized response by the business community and by political pundits. Many commentators have noted that the executive order is squarely in line with his administration’s nationalistic “America First” ideology. Unfortunately, the wording of the executive order regarding how the executive order will be implemented is somewhat ambiguous, so the motion will likely be taken into interpretation by members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when the executive order comes into effect.
Several I.T. and STEM organizations have complained about an inadequate number of properly-trained domestic workers, thus necessitating the recruitment of non-U.S. workers. Moreover, several large-scale corporations are multinational, therefore benefiting from cross-cultural collaboration. There is additionally fear that these restrictions will make the U.S. less desirable to highly-skilled International workers, thus benefiting other countries such as Canada and Australia with more permissive immigration standards. Some have argued that the rapid growth and adoption in telecommuting during the era of COVID-19 may reduce the necessity for foreign staff working for U.S. companies to seek U.S. residency, serving as a potential workaround for both U.S. companies and International job-seekers seeking to work for them.
It is worth restating that the move is only temporary (until the end of 2020), however some fear that the move will have a long-term effect on making the U.S. seem less attractive towards foreign workers. In similar news, the Trump Administration had announced an Executive Order to bar international college students from the United States if they were only taking courses online, however, this motion was revoked on July 14th, following a lawsuit from Harvard University and MIT. Moreover, depending on the pace of economic recovery in the coming months of the year, in addition to the result of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, the U.S. may very well reverse direction on this measure, however, it appears that the legislature will be moving in this direction for the time being.