Updated: Nov 17, 2017
Some of the latest USA immigration news revolves around H1-B visas. These temporary visas are given to highly skilled workers to enable them to visit the US for business purposes. Usually, acquiring an H1-B visa was not difficult: most valid applications were accepted and the scheme helped to foster a thriving international business scene in the USA. Now, however, the process has become much more difficult, as the Trump administration implements more discriminatory measures against immigrants more generally.
Requests For Evidence (RFEs) used to be few and far between. An RFE is a demand that a visa applicant provides addition information to support their application for an H1-B visa. Since the summer of 2017, however, the Trump administration has been using RFEs in increased numbers simply in order to challenge HB-1 visa applicants and to make the process longer and more difficult for them. At the time of writing this item of USA visa news (late November 2017), RFEs had increased by a huge 44% when compared to the number of RFEs issued last summer. The biggest increase began in the summer of 2017.
As you may have read in other items of USA immigration and ESTA news, the HB-1 visa scheme is technically a lottery. This means that there are a fixed number of HB-1 visas available every year. Prior to summer 2017, very often the only reason for an HB-1 visa application to be rejected was quite simply the fact that all of the visa places for that year had been taken up. Trump has frequently said that he wishes to abolish the HB-1 visa lottery altogether. He has also stated that he wishes to abolish the Diversity Lottery programme for DV visa holders. The Diversity Lottery is a yearly programme which provides a set number of permanent residency cards for the USA to foreign nationals of other countries. It has mainly benefitted citizens of countries that already benefitted from other schemes such as the ESTA scheme, with most Diversity Visa holders coming from countries such as Canada and Northern Ireland.
The delays to HB-1 visa applications are likely to have a significant knock on effect in areas as diverse as Silicon Valley and tech firms in the Midwest. Silicon Valley has bene using the HB-1 visa as its main source of labour, whilst many IT firms in the US source workers from countries abroad - especially India. In addition, restrictions on HB-1 visas will negatively affect graduate internships and international work placements in the US, and may even make it more difficult for businesspeople to visit and work in the US branches of an international company if they are coming from abroad. In short, the negative impact of this USA immigration and ESTA news item is already big and broad, and it is likely to get broader and bigger.
The Trump administration has claimed to be pro business, however their changes to visa and ESTA schemes have demonstrated that their pro business and anti immigration plans are incompatible. Restrictions to the HB-1 visa may drain some of the top talent from Silicon Valley and will also have a negative impact on younger people who wish to travel to the US on a USA visa as part of a graduate scheme. In short, curbing HB-1 visas is bad for business in the US.
To date, there are no definite data available regarding how many HB-1 visas are actively being refused. Nevertheless, the newly protracted application process means that many highly skilled workers who would previously have wished to travel to the US on a USA visa are now being put off even attempting to apply for the HB-1 visa. One of the key attractions of this visa in the past was the relatively smooth and streamlined application process associated with it. Now that this application process has become longer and more difficult, it is likely that many businesspeople working in the fast paced business world with its tight timeframes are likely to simply turn their sights to other countries when it comes to doing business internationally. This climate of uncertainty around HB-1 visas itself has had a negative effect.
We will keep you updated on developments relating to the HB-1 visa, and also on any new news items relating to immigration and visas in the US.
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