Us bans work visa

Us  govt. decide to ban the work visa for every country . This decision impact on globally . 

WHAT IS VISA?

A visa is an official document that allows the bearer to legally enter a foreign country.

The visa is usually stamped or glued into the bearer’s passport.

There are several different types of visas, 

each of which affords the bearer different

rights in the host country.

TYPE OF US WORK VISA?

The US work Visa allows foreign nationals to work in the United States.

There are various types of Visa issued by USA-H-1B and H-2B, H-4, J, and L visas.

WHAT ARE H-1B, H-2B, L, AND OTHER WORK VISA?

In order to fill a vacuum of highly-skilled low-cost employees in IT and other related domains,

The US administration issues a certain number of visas each year which allows companies from outside the US to send employees to work on client sites.

Of these work visas, the H-1B remains the most popular among Indian IT companies.

The US government has a cap of 85,000 total H-1B visas for each year.

Of this, 65,000 H-1B visas are issued to highly skilled foreign workers.

The rest 20,000 can be additionally allotted to highly skilled foreign workers who have a higher education or masters 

degree from an American university.

Even though the H-1B visa is a non

immigrant visa, it is one of the few US visa categories recognized as dual intent.

It means that the H-1B visa holder can apply for and obtain a US Green Card while in the US on an H-1B visa.

The US government also issues L1 visas which allows companies to transfer highly skilled workers to US for a period of up to seven years.

H-2B visas allow food and agricultural

workers to seek employment in the US.

WHAT USA HAS DONE NOW?

The us administration on Thursday said

it was extending the 60-day ban on 

immigration and non-immigrant worker visas till the end of 2020.

Visas including the much-coveted H-1B and H-2B, and certain categories of H-4, J, and L visas shall remain suspended until December 31,the White House said in a press note.

WHY DID THE US SUSPEND NON-IMMIGRANT WORKER VISA?

The technology boom coupled with the arrival of the internet and low-cost

computers in developing nations such as India and China saw a large number of

graduates willing to work at relatively low costs in the US,

A win-win situation for both employer and the employee.

However, it has since often been criticized for sending low-cost workers to the US at the expense of domestic workers.In

January 2017, after taking over as the

president of the US, Trump had hinted that the low-cost workers were hampering 

the economy and the undercutting jobs of citizens.

Trump seized the opportunity provided by the economic contraction due to Covid-19 by first banning the entry of non-immigrant workers till June 23, and then extending it till December 31.

IMPACT INDIAN IT COMPANIES?

Indian IT companies are amongst the

biggest beneficiaries of the US H-1B visa regime.

As of April 1, 2020, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received about 2.5 lakh H-1B work visa applications, according to official data.

Indians had applied for as many as 1.84 lakh or 67% of the total H-1B work visas for the current financial year ending March 2021.

Apart from the suspension of these work visas, the executive order signed by Trump has also made sweeping changes to the H-1B work visa norms, which will no longer be decided by the currently prevalent lottery system.

The new norms will now favor highly skilled workers who are paid the highest wages by their respective companies.

This could result in a significant impact on margins and worker wages of Indian IT companies which send thousands of low-cost employees to work on client sites in the US.

Though the large Indian IT companies have cut down their dependency on H-1B and other worker visas by hiring as much 

as 50 percent of staff locally, they still rely on these visas to keep costs in check.