WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump extended the freeze on the most sought after H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas for three months to protect American workers, saying that while the therapies and Covid-19 vaccines are recently available, their effect on the labor market and community health has yet to be fully realized.
The decision will affect a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies to which the US government issued H-1B visas for fiscal year 2021 as of October 1.
Trump ordered the freezing of several categories of work visas through two proclamations on April 22 and June 22 of last year.
Hours before the freeze expired on Dec. 31, Trump issued another proclamation on Thursday to extend it through March 30.
He said the reasons for which he had issued such a restriction have not changed.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. Tech companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Now they would have to wait at least until the end of March before approaching US diplomatic missions to obtain the seal. It would also affect a large number of IT professionals in India seeking to renew their H-1B visas.
President Trump said that the effects of Covid-19 on the US labor market and the health of American communities is a matter of constant national concern, and the considerations present in the previous two proclamations have not been removed.
“The 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to significantly disrupt the livelihoods of Americans. While the overall US unemployment rate for November of 6.7 percent reflects a sharp decline from its April peak, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February 2020, ”Trump said in its proclamation.
The current number of new daily cases around the world reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is greater than the comparable number present during June, and although recently there are therapies and vaccines available for a growing number of Americans , its effect on the labor market and community health have not yet been fully realized, he said.
“In addition, actions such as the continued imposition of restrictions by states on companies still affect the number of workers that can be hired compared to February 2020,” Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation can be extended if necessary. .
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