According to a fresh report by immigration law experts, US President Donald Trump has succeeded in creating an ‘Invisible wall’ which makes it more difficult for companies to hire foreign skilled workers. President Trump has earlier stated that there will be merit based immigration system which helps prioritizing the admittance of skilled candidates and want to work. But the present situation creates more problems than solving the issue.
Experts opine that the hurdles placed in employment based immigration system which was done during Trump’s first year in office have made the foreign workers discouraged from seeking jobs in the U.S. and American companies who recruit them overseas.
Due to the mentioned policy, for the first time in five years, there is a sharp decline in the number of petitions for ‘high skilled’ H-1B visas that are received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The numbers in 2017 fiscal year was 236,000 petitions and in 2018 fiscal, it was reduced to 199,000, the report said.
Many businesses have been hit due to the unprecedented scrutiny of nonimmigrant petitions for managers, executives, skilled workers and other workers, the report by the American Immigration Lawyers Association stated.
The new policy outlined new rules for workers from foreign countries and companies that employ them which include: Requests for additional evidence and interview requirements increased dramatically for processing H-1B visa petitions, Obama-era rules were dismantled in order to encourage immigrant entrepreneurship and proposals that help eliminate work permission for spouses of high-skilled workers.
Lawyers who handle such cases of immigration are of the view that the new policies related to employer-sponsored visas are making a mess for businesses due to their spending of substantial time and money while recruiting and hiring foreign workers with the right skills.
“The heightened standards and new interpretations that are now being used by USCIS to scrutinize and deny H-1B petitions are causing significant unpredictability for employers in staffing important positions,” said Marketa Lindt, who is a business immigration attorney in Chicago and a vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
These policies contradict to the Trump’s rhetoric to move “towards a merit-based immigration system — one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society.”
The White House did not immediately give a response over the issue after a request for comment.
“The invisible wall has risen quickly and will undoubtedly continue to rise higher,” the report stated. “When the tide eventually turns and we start to move back toward our legacy as a ‘nation of immigrants,’ it will take years to chip away at the policies and rules that comprise the invisible wall, and years to undo the damage to our country and our reputation in the world.”