Trump administration publically announces of not considering H-1B visa extension policy

Washington, January 9: Giving up a major relief to the Indian techies who work in America, the United States on Tuesday publically announced that Trump administration is not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country.

 

Notably, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USICS) has publically announced that neither President Donald Trump nor his administration is considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country. However, the announcement of USICS comes days after reports emerged that the Trump administration was considering to tighten H-1B visa rules more which could have lead to deportation of lakhs of Indians.

An official from Trump administration said, “The USCIS is not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing interpretation of section certain language in Section 104 C of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) statute that states that USCIS may grant the extensions.”

The Chief of Media Relations at the USCIS in a statement said, "Even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead."

"The agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President's Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment-based visa programmes," Withington added.

The statement comes after last week's news report by US-based news agency McClatchy DC according to which the Trump administration was considering new regulations to prevent the extension of H-1B visas, the most sought after by Indian IT professionals.

Earlier in the month of November last year, the United States key Congressional committee on Wednesday voted to pass a legislation that proposes to increase the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders from 60 thousand to 90 thousand US Dollars and imposes a number of restriction on the work visa popular among IT professionals from India.

BACKGROUND:

At the end of October month last year, the Trump administration has already tightened the renewal of non-immigrant visas such as H-1B and L1 mainly popular among IT professionals. Also, in the month of April this year, President Trump signed an executive which ordered federal agencies to the rules for technology companies seeking to bring highly skilled foreign workers to America. However, this step was taken by President Trump to carry out his campaign “America First” for bringing more jobs to his countrymen.

The order signed by Trump mainly targeted the H-1B visa programme. The executive order which was signed by President Trump is on the basis of “Buy American, Hire American” in Kenosha, Wisconsin, initiating visa and government purchase reforms. Premium processing of H-1B visa was suspended in April to handle huge rush of new petitions which was the biggest blow for Indians.

Later, the United States resumed the premium processing of H-1B visa with the revised and tightened rules. Following developments came after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj mentioned the visa issue with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when the two leaders met in New York.

Interestingly, after winning the elections, the then President-elect Trump said, “We will have two simple rules when it comes to this massive rebuilding effort, buy American and hire American.” During his campaign trail also Trump vowed that “the American people will come first once again.”