United States President Donald Trump has extended the suspension on a number of foreign work visas, including the H-1B visa, by three months to protect American workers, saying that while COVID-19 vaccines were available in the country, their effect on the labour market, and society at large, have not been realised yet. 

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The decision will affect a large number of Indian IT professionals and a range of Indian and American companies who have been issued the visa for the fiscal year 2021, starting October 2021, PTI reported.

Trump sanctioned the suspension on the various visas through two separate orders on April 22 and June 22 last year. He extended the suspension hours before its scheduled expiry on December 31, issuing another proclamation to extend it until March 31. 

He said the reasons for imposing such restrictions have remained unchanged. 

The non-immigrant H-1B visa allows American companies to hire foreign workers in occupations involving therapeutical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on this visa to hire thousands of workers each year from countries like India and the US.

They would now have to wait at least till the end of March before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get the requisite stamping. It would also impact a large number of Indian IT professionals who are seeking renewal of their H-1B visas.

Trump said that the effects of COVID-19 on the US labour market and the health of American communities is a matter of ongoing national concern, and the considerations present in the two previous proclamations have not been eliminated.

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“The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to significantly disrupt Americans’ livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the United States of 6.7% reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February of 2020,” Trump said in his proclamation.

The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, is higher than the comparable number present during June, and while therapeutics and vaccines are recently available for an increasing number of Americans, their effect on the labour market and community health has not yet been fully realised, he said.

“Moreover, actions such as States’ continued imposition of restrictions on businesses still affect the number of workers that can be hired as compared with February of 2020,” Trump said, adding that his latest proclamation may be extended if necessary.