Trump extends ban on H1-B visas by three months

US President Donald Trump has prolonged the freeze on probably the most sought-after H-1B visas by Indian IT professionals, together with different kinds of international work visas and inexperienced playing cards via March 31 to guard American staff, saying that the explanations for which he had imposed such restrictions amidst the pandemic haven’t modified. The freeze on varied classes of labor visas was ordered by Trump via two proclamations on April 22 and June 22 final 12 months. Hours earlier than the freeze was set to run out on December 31, Trump issued one other proclamation on Thursday to increase it till March 31, guaranteeing that his sweeping limits on authorized immigration will stay in place when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20. He mentioned that the explanations for which he had issued such a restriction haven’t modified. The continuation of the restrictions, which comes with simply 20 days left within the Republican President’s time period, is the most recent effort to bar the entry of immigrants to the US. Restricting immigration has been a spotlight of the Trump administration since its first days when it issued the journey ban on seven Muslim-majority nations, and it has continued into Trump’s ultimate 12 months in workplace because the White House makes use of the coronavirus pandemic as cowl. Biden, a Democrat, has promised to raise the suspension on H-1B visas, saying Trump’s immigration insurance policies are merciless. US media commented that Trump’s determination was yet one more instance of how the his administration is attempting to field Biden in on difficult coverage issues. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that permits US firms to make use of international staff in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. The know-how firms depend upon it to rent tens of 1000’s of staff annually from nations like India and China. They would now have to attend at the very least until the tip of March earlier than approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping. It would additionally affect a lot of Indian IT professionals who’re looking for renewal of their H-1B visas. President Trump mentioned that the results of COVID-19 on the US labour market and the well being of American communities are a matter of ongoing nationwide concern, and the concerns current within the two earlier proclamations haven’t been eradicated. “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,” Trump mentioned in his proclamation. The present variety of new every day circumstances worldwide reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for instance, is larger than the comparable quantity current throughout June, and whereas therapeutics and vaccines are just lately out there for an growing variety of Americans, their impact on the labour market and neighborhood well being has not but been totally realised, he mentioned. “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 mentioned, including that his newest proclamation could also be prolonged if essential.