The “high” rate of approval of the foreign worker visa program could soon end if President-elect Donald Trump's team revives the restrictive immigration policies of his first administration, according to lawyers. But Trump's visa plan is uncertain.
Foreign workers seeking employment in the United States enjoyed almost guaranteed visa success in fiscal year 2024, as immigration authorities approved more than 97% of H1-B visa applications, the National Foundation for Americans reported. Policy.
This is the second highest approval rate in more than a decade. But the exceptionally high success rate could soon end if President-elect Donald Trump's team revives the restrictive immigration policies of his first administration, according to immigration attorneys. That, in turn, could significantly impact U.S. companies and other institutions that rely on highly skilled foreign workers, especially those from India, they warn.
“I think it's going to be more difficult, and it's going to be more complicated to approve things,” said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services attorney. of the United States (USCIS).
Companies exploit the program, critics say
Created in 1990, the H-1B program allows American companies to hire foreign talent in specialized fields such as technology, engineering and healthcare, with 85,000 visas issued by lottery.
Indian workers have received more than 70% of jobs in recent years, followed by Chinese.
The program has long been the subject of controversy. Proponents say it allows the United States to attract top foreign talent and fill critical jobs.
A 2016 study by the National Foundation for American Policy found that nearly a quarter of billion-dollar U.S. companies have a founder who first came to the United States as an international student. But critics see the program as a weapon against American workers.
Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pointed to Disney's controversial decision a decade ago to lay off hundreds of American staff members, forcing them to train foreign replacements.
Although Disney denied any wrongdoing and escaped subsequent lawsuits, the case became a rallying cry among anti-immigration groups.
FAIR claims that American companies take advantage of the system to hire cheaper foreign labor, driving down wages in the United States.
“There are a lot of tech workers available here in the United States, and that should be the first resort of these companies to go out and hire people who are American citizens,” Mehlman, FAIR's media director, said in an interview with VOA.
Mehlman claimed that the program has strayed from its roots as a temporary foreign worker program, and that foreign nationals use it to obtain U.S. citizenship.
“This should be a program that says you're going to come here for a specific amount of time, the length of your visa, and then you're going to come home,” Mehlman continued.
The criticism is shared by many Republicans in Congress, as well as Trump, who campaigned in 2016 to end it.
Immigration officials followed up with stricter qualification and salary requirements for foreign workers.
Most of those rules were ultimately blocked by the courts. But immigration officials found other ways to squeeze the program. They approved some visa applications for one year instead of three, rejected automatic extensions and stepped up workplace inspections. According to immigration lawyers, visa applicants were increasingly required to provide evidence to process their applications.
Denials of new visas spiked by 24% in 2018 and fell to 21% in 2019, before declining to 13% in 2020. That marked a sharp departure from the Obama era, when fewer than 1 in 10 petitions were denied .
“What we did see work effectively under the Trump administration was a dismantling of the system,” said Dalal-Dheini, who worked as special counsel at USCIS during the first Trump administration.
Trump's visa plan is uncertain
While changing rules and regulations is cumbersome and time-consuming, immigration attorneys warn of a likely return to tactics the first Trump administration used to limit the number of visas issued to foreign workers.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, head of the immigration practice at law firm Dickinson Wright, said she is particularly concerned that increased scrutiny by federal anti-fraud agents could slow things down and potentially create “more difficulties in getting approval for your H-1B visa status.”
“That worries me,” Walker, AILA's former national president, said in an interview with the VOA.
The incoming administration's plans for the visa program remain uncertain. Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the VOAbut a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post earlier this year that Trump “will restore all of his previous (immigration) policies” immediately upon returning to the White House.
Although the new Trump administration is expected to focus on cracking down on undocumented immigrants, immigration lawyers say the new administration could focus on both legal and illegal immigration, pointing to the appointment of hardliners in immigration issues like Stephen Miller, Trump's new deputy chief of staff in the White House.
However, the signs are contradictory. Trump has floated the idea of granting residency permits to foreign graduates from American universities. And Elon Musk, a key Trump ally, is a strong supporter of the H-1B program, and Tesla will hire 742 new foreign workers in fiscal year 2024, putting it in 16th place among US companies with the most H-visas. 1B approved.
Although it's unclear what influence, if any, Musk will have on Trump's immigration policies, Walker said he's “hopeful that he can be there to try to help adjust things that are from a positive perspective for the category.” H-1B”.