Tech companies depend on H-1B to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India
Washington:
US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase the number of highly qualified visas, including H-1B, and remove the cap on employment-based visas per country, which are expected to benefit dozens of thousands of Indian professionals affected by some immigration policies of the outgoing Trump administration.
With Kamala Harris as his deputy, Biden is expected to reverse the measure by the outgoing Trump administration to revoke work permits for spouses on H-1B visas, which had negatively affected a large number of Indian families in the US. USA
This is all part of a comprehensive immigration reform that the Biden administration plans to work on, either all at once or in separate pieces.
“Highly skilled temporary visas should not be used to discourage the hiring of workers already in the US for in-demand occupations. An immigration system that displaces highly skilled workers in favor of job-level wages and skills. entry threatens American innovation and competitiveness, “according to a policy document issued by the Biden campaign.
“Biden will work with Congress to first reform temporary visas to establish a wage-based allocation process and establish enforcement mechanisms to ensure they are aligned with the labor market and not used to undermine wages. Then, Biden will support the expansion of the number of specialized visas and the removal of employment-based visa limits per country, which create unacceptably long delays, “he said.
H-1B visas, which expand the available pool of highly skilled workers in the US, 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.
Employment-based visas, also known as green cards, allow migrants to obtain lawful permanent residence in the US to perform skilled work.
Considering that the number of employment-based visas is currently capped at 140,000 each year, without the ability to respond to the state of the labor market or the demands of national employers, the policy document says that, as president, Biden will work with Congress. increase the number of visas granted for permanent employment-based immigration and promote mechanisms to temporarily reduce the number of visas during times of high unemployment in the United States.
In June, Trump had suspended H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas until the end of 2020 to protect American workers. In October, the Trump administration had announced new restrictions on the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program, which it said aims to protect American workers, restore integrity, and better ensure that H-1B petitions are approved only for beneficiaries and qualified petitioners.
According to the policy document, Biden will also waive from any limits recent graduates of doctoral programs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields in the US who are prepared to make some of the most important contributions to the worldwide economy.
“Biden believes that foreign graduates of an American doctoral program should receive a green card with their degree and that losing these highly skilled workers in foreign economies is a disservice to our own economic competitiveness,” he said.
The Biden administration plans to create a new visa category to allow cities and counties to request higher levels of immigrants to support their growth.
“The disparity in economic growth between US cities and between rural communities and urban areas is one of the great imbalances in today’s economy. Some cities and many rural communities struggle with declining populations, erosion of economic opportunities and local businesses facing unique challenges.
Others are simply struggling to attract a productive workforce and innovative entrepreneurs. As president, Biden will support a program to allow any county or county executive in a large or medium county or city to apply for additional immigrant visas to support the economic development strategy. of the region, provided that employers in those regions certify that there are jobs available and that there are no workers to fill them, “says the policy document.
Holders of these visas should work and reside in the city or county that applied for them, and would be subject to the same certification protections as other employment-based immigrants, he argued.
According to the policy document, Biden believes that keeping families together and allowing eligible immigrants to join their American relatives on American soil is vitally important, but the current system is poorly designed with per-country limits that prevent applications. are approved in a timely manner. .
That means approved applicants can wait decades to be reunited with their families, he said.
“As President, Biden will support family-based immigration by preserving family unification as the foundation of our immigration system; allowing any approved applicant to receive a temporary non-immigrant visa until the permanent visa is processed; and supporting legislation that addresses to the spouse and children of green card holders as immediate relatives that they are, exempting them from the limits and allowing parents to bring their minor children with them at the time of immigration, “the policy document says.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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