What Trump’s H-1B visa order means for IT

By Peter Sayer

Senior Editor, CIO | JUN 23, 2020 11:41 AM PDT

H-1B visa applicants represent ‘a significant threat to employment opportunities’ for millions of unemployed, says Trump; IT firms say the move will damage the economy.

H-1B visa applicants hoping to enter the U.S. to work will have to be patient, as President Donald Trump has extended an earlier 60-day ban on skilled foreign workers entering the country until the end of the year, at least.

The move is intended to protect the millions of U.S. workers who have lost their jobs in the economic slowdown caused by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the White House.

IT companies have relied heavily on the H-1B program to fill technology roles. Many released statements on social media denouncing the order yesterday, including Twitter, which quoted Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, its vice president of public policy and philanthropy for the Americas, saying, “This proclamation undermines America’s greatest economic asset: its diversity.”

Between February and April this year, “more than 20 million U.S. workers lost their jobs in key industries where employers are currently requesting H-1B and L workers to fill positions,” Trump wrote in a proclamation issued Monday, ordering that applicants for such visas be barred from entry to the U.S. until Dec. 31. The move extends a 60-day ban he signed in April.

H-1B visas are issued to skilled workers when employers can demonstrate that suitably qualified staff cannot be found locally. While the number of new H-1B visas is currently capped at 65,000 each year, plus an additional 20,000 for applicants with master’s degrees or higher from U.S. educational institutions, 188,123 were issued in 2019 including renewals, according to U.S. State Department figures. L-1 visas, meanwhile, can be granted to employees transferring to a U.S. company from a foreign subsidiary; 76,988 were issued in 2019, little changed from the year before.

No effect on applicants already in U.S.

Trump’s executive order will have little effect on the labor supply in the short term, as visa applicants already in the U.S. are unaffected.

“One thing that is often lost in these discussions is the distinction between a visa and a status. A visa is merely an entry document that is stamped into a passport — often called the visa stamp. A visa status is a legal right to be and work in the United States,” says Rebecca Bernhard, a partner the immigration and employment practices of international law firm Dorsey & Whitney.