This June Trump issued an until-the-end-of-the-year suspension of H1-B visa filed outside the US, restricting the entry of highly qualified professionals, who would work in the US under the categories of H1B ( highly skilled professionals), L (employee intra-transer), and J ( for scholars) visa holders, including the H2B (lower in skills), causing anxiety among international students and professionals. It does not come as a surprise given Trump’s consistent anti immigration rhetoric, and the Corona-induced economic slump, which he believes could be bettered by keeping the skilled immigrants out of the border.
The timing of this suspension coincides with the Corona Pandemic, and the good news is already not many firms at this stage have been adding numbers to the employment rolls, nor there is H1B filing spree, as it had been in the past. So the carnage due to H1B suspension is going to be minimum until the end of this year for sure, when this recession would likely persist till then.
Our prediction is that soon H1B restriction would be lifted, regardless of Republicans or Democrats that come to power after this Nov 2020 election. The reason being without skilled workers coming under H1B and J category, America cannot maintain their military and technological ascendancy, which it wants to, as it fears the expanding Chinese ambition, let alone the rising cost of domestic labour, when internationals are absent from the employment scene.
The F1 visa (the student visa), is not curtailed for now, and wouldn’t be. The rationale is barring students — the chief source through which technology-centric employers recruit their people—such firms will be barren of innovation, alongside the cash that these students bring to its economy. OPT (Optional Practical Training) period of 36 months for those in STEM fields will also not be contracted, for if the period is shortened, the student aspirants will not find America an attractive destination, as the odds of getting job under a reduced OPT period gets leaner.
Therefore aspiring students don’t need to worry so much about these temporary restrictions as about the schools that couldn’t start classes due to Corona virus. Corona is the glitch. For those anxious about H1b, here is our hopeful view. This H1 B suspension is going to be a temporary measure, a pretext using which Trump would try to garner votes from the anti-immigrant constituency this election. And whether he succeeds or fails in it, the economic, technological and political necessities and realities would compel the one who occupies the white house to restore the H1B and other visa restrictions to its earlier state, for if they don’t, the stature of US in the world’s stage would be grievously diminished.