Biden administration undecided on lifting Trump-era ban on issuing new H-1B visas

The administration of US President Joe Biden is not sure about ending the Trump-era ban on issuing new H-1B visas as the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas asserted that the top priority of the admin is the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution, PTI reported. The ban on issuing new H-1B visas was extended till March 31 in January by the then-president, Donald Trump, who said that the US is having a very high unemployment rate and it cannot afford to have more foreign workers.

Trump’s successor President Joe Biden has revoked dozens of the executive orders issued by the former president, including several of those related to immigration like lifting the Muslim visa ban or those related to Green Card.

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However, the one that imposed a ban on issuing H-1B has still not been lifted. The ban will expire in March if the US President does not issue a fresh proclamation.

When Mayorkas was asked about the decision of the White House on lifting the H-1B ban, he said, “I don’t really (know)–I hate to end the questioning on a question. The answer to which I am not certain.”

“But this goes to what proceeded us. We have so much work to do to repair and to restore and to rebuild that we have a prioritization matrix and of course, the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution is a high priority. Which brings me to this meeting this morning,” Mayorkas continued, reported news agency PTI. 

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The statement comes alongside the start of the allocation process for H-1B applications by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2021. The department last month said it has received enough applications to allocate 65,000 H-1B visas and another 20,000 H-1B visas to those, who have completed their higher education from US universities.

Biden, soon after taking over the president’s office, revoked a policy issued last year by his predecessor Trump, which blocked many Green Card applicants from entering the US, a move that will benefit many Indians working in America on the H-1B visa. The Republican said the ban was needed to protect US workers amid high rates of unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, a Green Card is a document issued to immigrants to the US evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently. The document benefits many Indian IT professionals, who come to the US on H-1B work visas.

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However, the current ban directly impacts them, making them the worst sufferers of the current immigration system that imposes a 7% per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.

Most sought by Indian IT professionals, the H-1B visa  is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. US tech firms depend on the visa to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The US is currently facing a backlog of nearly 473,000 qualified family-based Green Card requests.

As a result of Trump’s ban on issuing green cards, as many as 120,000 family-based preference visas were lost. But this came as a big boon for issuing employment-based green cards, mainly those on H-1B visas.

Thousands of Indian IT professionals who painstakingly waited for their Green Card received their legal permanent residency as a result in the last few months of the Trump administration.