Tag: DonaldTrump

Motivated by more restrictive immigration policies under the Trump administration and the difficulty of obtaining green cards in the United States, the number of Indians obtaining permanent residence in Canada has more than doubled since 2016. Given current trends, Indian scientists and engineers will likely continue to see Canada as an attractive alternative location to make their careers and raise a family.

The number of Indians who became permanent residents in Canada increased from 39,340 in 2016 to 80,685 in 2019, through the first 11 months of 2019, an increase of more than 105%, according to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data. Full-year Canadian statistics will likely show more than 85,000 Indian immigrants in 2019.

What are the reasons for this stunning increase in immigration from India to Canada? “Canada is benefitting from a diversion of young Indian tech workers from U.S. destinations, largely because of the challenges of obtaining and renewing H-1B visas and finding a reliable route to U.S. permanent residence,” said Peter Rekai, founder of the Toronto-based immigration law firm Rekai LLP, in an interview.

In the United States, the denial rate for H-1B petitions for continuing employment (primarily for existing employees) is 12% under the Trump administration, four times higher than the denial rate of 3% in FY 2015. For new employees on H-1B petitions the denial rate was 24% through the first three quarters of FY 2019, compared to 6% in FY 2015.

Due to the low number of employment-based immigrant visas (green cards) and the per-country limit, an Indian-born professional might need to wait decades before obtaining permanent residence in the United States.

Many U.S. and Indian technology companies have opened affiliate offices in Canada. The Canadian government, for its part, has streamlined its work permit process for tech workers and provides a clear path to permanent residence, notes Rekai.

“Indian nationals are ideally suited to Canada’s points-based selection system, which places a high value on youth, post-secondary education, and high-skilled foreign and (especially Canadian) work experience,” said Rekai. High-level English language skills are required to qualify for permanent residence under Canada’s Express Entry points system, which may be one reason the number of immigrants from China has remained relatively flat in the past few years. Chinese nationals who do not garner enough points through Express Entry could still gain permanent residence under programs run by Canadian provinces, which focus on skills needed by local employers and place less importance on language ability.

Another factor in the rise of Indian immigrants in Canada is the ability of Canadian universities to attract international students at record levels. In 2017, the number of international students in Canada increased by 20%. In 2018, international student enrollment at Canadian universities rose again, by 16%.

At the same time, at U.S. universities new enrollment of international students declined by more than 10% between the 2015-16 and 2018-2019 academic years.

Canada makes it easy for an international student to transition to work after graduation, which creates a path to permanent residence. However, the Trump administration has announced plans to restrict or eliminate Optional Practical Training (OPT), including in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Optional Practical Training allows international students to work after graduation in the U.S. for 12 months or an additional 24 months in a STEM-related job. The administration has also put forward other restrictions that would make an education in America less appealing to international students. (See here.)

The rise in Indian students coming to Canadian universities is likely a significant reason that Indian immigration has surged. The number of Indian international students studying at Canadian universities rose from 76,075 in 2016 to 172,625 in 2018, an increase of 127%, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. In contrast, at U.S. universities, the number of international students from India enrolled in graduate-level programs in computer science and engineering fell by 21% (18,590 fewer graduate students) from 2016 to 2017.

Canada plans to increase legal immigration. “To further ease the challenges of a shrinking labor force and an aging population, our new multi-year immigration levels plan sets out the highest levels of permanent residents that Canada will welcome in recent history,” declared Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen in 2018. By 2021, Canada is expected to increase legal immigration to 350,000 a year, a rise of 63,490, or 22%, from the 2017 level of 286,510.

In the United States, legal immigration fell by 7% between 2016 and 2018, one of the first concrete signs of the impact of the Trump presidency on legal immigration. Due to Trump administration policies, and without any changes in the law by Congress, the annual number of new legal immigrants to the U.S. could decline by as much as 30%, or up to 350,000 a year, from the 2016 U.S. immigration level of 1,183,5050, according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis.

The implementation of the administration’s public charge rule, the travel ban and diminished refugee admissions are the key factors that will more precisely determine the new, lower level. Reducing legal immigration and thereby slowing labor force growth means lower long-term economic growth may become Donald Trump’s most lasting legacy.

The points system in Canada mostly works because it is flexible and responds to employer needs, and that part of the system is likely impossible to implement in the United States because of America’s different governmental structures. Peter Rekai has noted that it could be dangerous to import the Canadian points system wholesale into the United States. “Putting broad immigration decision-making into the hands of a strong executive can lead to ‘be careful what you wish for’ outcomes,” according to Rekai. “An ideologue in an empowered U.S. executive branch (e.g., White House aide Stephen Miller) could significantly change the focus of U.S. immigration through executive order or action.”

More important to attracting employers and skilled workers to Canada is how much easier it is in Toronto and other Canadian cities to employ professionals comparable to H-1B visa holders. Under the Canadian government’s Global Skills Strategy, the country’s adjudicators approve many applications for high-skilled workers within two weeks and, in contrast to the U.S., the number of applications denied is low.

New restrictions on H-1B visas and international students, combined with long waits for employment-based green cards, make America a less attractive destination than Canada for many high-skilled immigrants and their employers. Based on current trends, the situation is likely to grow worse for U.S. companies seeking to attract talent to America.

(Adapted from Forbes Magazine)

Among advocates of immigration restriction, it’s almost an article of faith that newcomers from rich countries are more desirable than those from poor countries. In early 2018, President Donald Trump reportedly expressed a desire for more immigrants from Norway and fewer from countries such as Haiti, labeling the latter with an expletive. Writing in 1896, restrictionist Francis Walker made a similar argument, calling East European immigrants “beaten men from beaten races.”

This view comes partly from racial bigotry and negative stereotypes. But it also stems from two misconceptions about U.S. immigration: Restrictionists ignore the importance of institutions, and they underestimate how effective the U.S. is at selecting the talented, the hard-working and the ambitious.

First, the caricatures offered up by Trump and Walker don’t come close to describing reality. Immigrants tend to be poor when they arrive on American shores, but they and their children rapidly move up. Native-born children of immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador who were born to families near the poverty line tend to earn about the median income:

Getting Ahead

Income percentile of sons of low-income immigrants*

Source: Leah Boustan

* Father’s birthplace for sons at 25th income percentile, sons’ average income percentile (1997-2015)

The children of immigrants from India and Pakistan are even more upwardly mobile.

So why do immigrants born in poor countries — and their children — succeed in the U.S.?

One big reason is that U.S. institutions are more effective at generating economic prosperity than institutions in developing nations. The U.S. has a reasonably functional and responsive government, property rights and the rule of law, a fairly efficient corporate culture and a large stock of accumulated knowledge and expertise. When immigrants and their children adapt to the American way of doing things, their natural potential is put to much better use than in their home countries.

There’s another powerful reason immigrants from poor countries do well in the U.S.: selectivity. The U.S. doesn’t just let in people randomly; in most cases, it carefully chooses those who are most likely to succeed.

For one thing, the system selects for education. About 12% of U.S. immigrants come via employment-based green cards, often after spending some time in the H-1B visa program. These individuals tend to be highly educated. And so do their families; 66% of U.S. immigration is done via various family reunification programs. As unauthorized immigration to the U.S. has dried up and gone into reverse, the average education level of new immigrants has soared:

The amount of selectivity is different for different countries. In a recent paper, economist Ed Lazear used a simple model to show how the education levels of a particular ancestry group in the U.S. — say Algerian-Americans — depends not just on the average education levels of the source country, but also on the size of its population and its degree of access to the U.S.

Lazear suggested that larger countries that send relatively small numbers of immigrants to the U.S. will tend to send their best and brightest. This explains why India, with 1.3 billion people and low average education levels, is the source of what is arguably the most elite group of immigrants in the U.S.

Looking at the data, Lazear found that just knowing three things — a country’s population, the number of immigrants it sends to the U.S. and the average education level in that country — allows one to make a highly accurate prediction of how educated the immigrants from that country will be. Selectivity ends up being the most important factor, by a considerable margin. Importantly, Lazear also finds that selectivity strongly predicts income, showing that the system isn’t just picking immigrants with useless paper degrees.

Of course, education isn’t the only kind of skill that the system selects for. The simple act of coming to a strange new country and starting a whole new life, often without even speaking the language, requires an uncommon amount of courage, ambition and grit. That’s probably why immigrants from Mexico, for whom selectivity is the lowest because of the big porous land border, are still very upwardly mobile. Because of low average education levels and racial discrimination, Mexican-Americans don’t tend to reach parity with the native-born, but they do close much of the gap.

So the evidence shows that the U.S. system is actually very good at selecting talented go-getters from abroad. Restrictionists who believe that immigrants from poor countries will make the U.S. a poorer place are simply wrong.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will publish in March a proposed rule to strip work authorization from spouses of H-1B visa holders, the agency said Wednesday in the latest federal government rule-making agenda.

While the announcement in the Unified Agenda should be taken with a grain of salt — the agency has several times missed its own deadlines for proposing the rule — a March date fits with a Department of Justice memo that said the planned rule could be published as early as spring 2020.

However, the Justice Department, which submitted its memo in September to a federal appeals court in a lawsuit seeking an employment prohibition for H-1B spouses on the H-4 visa, called the spring timeframe “aspirational.”

In that lawsuit, IT workers argue that they were replaced by H-1B visa holders and now must compete against H-4 holders in the job market. Earlier this month, the workers scored a victory when a three-judge appeals panel in the Washington, D.C. circuit ruled the workers had proven that H-1B holders compete against them for jobs, and that letting H-4 spouses work increases competition because if they couldn’t work, some H-1B holders would leave. The judges kicked the case back down to federal district court to continue.

The H-1B, intended for jobs requiring specialized skills, has become a target of the administration of President Donald Trump. Under his Buy American and Hire American executive order, federal authorities have dramatically boosted H-1B denial rates, with outsourcing companies hit especially hard. While major Silicon Valley technology firms rely heavily on the H-1B to acquire talent, and push for an expansion to the annual 85,000 cap on new visas, critics point to reported abuses by outsourcers and argue that those companies, and major tech firms employing H-1B contract labor, use the visa to supplant U.S. workers and drive down wages.

A report released earlier this month by a group supporting an expanded H-1B program said that from fiscal years 2015 to 2019, outsourcers and staffing companies both foreign and domestic were getting hammered with H-1B denials, but that Big Tech saw little to no increase in rejections. Federal government data show that the steepest increase in H-1B denials has come under the Trump administration.

Spouses of H-1B workers on track for green cards have since 2015 been allowed to work. Estimates of the number of H-4 visa holders with work authorization range from 90,000 to 100,000. University of Tennessee researchers concluded that the vast majority are women from India. Many are employed in the Bay Area.

Homeland Security in 2017 first promised to end the H-4 work authorization, saying in the semiannual Unified Agenda that it would in February 2018 propose a rule to scrap the authorization.

The agency — named as the defendant in the “Save Jobs USA” case by the IT workers because it promulgated the work authorization under the administration of former President Barack Obama — has several times gotten the appeals court to put the legal proceedings on hold while it works on the H-4 work-ban rule. Howard University professor Ron Hira, who studies the H-1B, believes the holdup with the H-4 rule results from lobbying by groups in favor of letting the spouses work. Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Publication of the proposed rule is expected to trigger a public comment period. Comment periods for new federal rules typically last 30 to 60 days, but can extend to 180 days or more. Immigration law firm Fragomen has said termination of the H-4 work authorization “could come within months of the release of the proposal.”

H-1B Spouses Face Uncertainty with New H-4 EAD Decision

H-4 EAD, H-1B Both Squeezed

By Anil Augustine

FOMAA has initiated in highlighting, advocating and educating the Indian American community members on the perspectives & challenges licit, legit & documented Employment Based (EB) immigrants are faced with insane Green Card backlog of 150+ years of wait time due to the Country Cap birth origin nationality quota system.

FOMAA together in partnership with IL immigration Forum (IIF) and Chicago Cosmopolitan Club has made a very bold statement enabling brotherhood to the otherwise unorganized orphans/strangers the deserving immigrant “Aliens” in the apathy of the insane Employment Based (EB) GC backlog.

This bipartisan initiative was well attended by elected officials of both Rep. & Dem parties, is of much significance.

Republican State Chief Mr. Tim Schneider, Honorable Representative Tom Morrison of District 54 together with Mr. Nimesh Jani, City Council member attended the convention. Honorable Congressman Mr. Raja Krishnamoorthy, Mr. Matt Flamm, together with Ms. Laddi Singh, area leaders represented the Democratic Party at the event.

Dr. Sam Pitroda, the absolute icon of immigrant success in America was the chief guest and enlightened the participants with his eloquent thoughts. It was double sweetened for attendees that a surprise birthday celebration was organized by FOMAA as it was Dr. Sam Pitroda’s birthday.

Dr. Pitroda, assertively reminded the audience how India historically hosted the Mughals, the British, the Portuguese, the Iranian Zoroastrians while they were fleeing persecution, the Polish when they escaped Nazi persecution, currently the Tibetans & the Bangla Rohingiyas making the First Nation in the world  be a true “Melting pot”. The diversity that India is blessed with is the true factor that helped India to produce the best educated talent pool the global economic powerhouses could tap into. Dr. Pitroda encouraged everyone to involve actively in the political process that, unless without participation no changes can be expected in our favor; however desperate & genuine be our cause!

Hon. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthy, as well stressed upon the fact that a community that participate/vote, only will be counted & reckoned. This was in a way an appeal to the community from the Hon. Congressman urging all community members the importance of exercising their votes during the upcoming elections.

State Republican Chief Mr. Tom Schneider, highlighted Pr. Trump’s policies favoring licit & legit immigration. Rep. Morrison, being an educator by profession underlined the alarming shortage of skilled STEM professionals in USA & promised to represent our cause to the party higher ups.

The convention was well attended by citizens of Indian diaspora from across the Nation. FOMAA oficials Mr. Jose Abraham, on his welcome note narrated the vision & commitment to persuade favoring this genuine cause. This well organized event was chaired by Mr. Subash George Chemanthara, and coordinated by Mr. Vishak Cherian of —— State.

This exceptional, much needy stem put forward by FOMAA is greatly appreciated and will be a benchmark initiative to be followed by all other community organizations in social relevance. For more information please visit: www.fomaa.org

Trump administration’s increased scrutiny of the H-1B visa program has forced Indian citizens to prefer Canada over the United States for permanent residency. There is growing uncertainty in the United States over the future of Indian techies because of the Trump administration’s focus on giving preference to locals for jobs. In fact, the current administration wants to replace the existing Green Cards system with the proposed Build America visa.

In 2018, more than 39,500 Indians opted for permanent residency in Canada. The country’s express entry program has been quite a success in attracting highly skilled foreign workers, especially India’s IT professionals.

Newly released statistics highlight that Canada granted permanent residency to over 92,000 new residents in 2018. In the previous year, Canada had only 65,500 permanent residents, out of which 26,300 were from India. The number of Indian citizens to be awarded permanent residency has increased by 51% from 2017. China secured the second rank in 2017 but slipped to the third in 2018. Meanwhile, Nigeria holds the second rank in acquiring permanent residency in 2018.

The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada report states, “The top countries of citizenship based on the people admitted to Canada generally mirrors those of invited candidates. Nearly half of all people admitted in 2018 had Indian citizenship.” The Justin Trudeau-led government has created ample amount of opportunities for permanent entry residents.

Canada’s express entry program is similar to the US’s green card system. With the increasing scrutiny in obtaining the H-1B visa, skilled workers are moving towards Canada. The US visa system is suffering through delays, denials of visa extensions, green card backlogs and the proposed plan to revoke the work authorisation of H-1B spouses.

The Global Talent Stream (GTS) has helped Canada become a preferred destination for Indian techies. GTS is a merit-based work visa process. Canadian companies are increasingly using GTS to bring expats with STEM background within two weeks. The program has helped in increasing the flow of Indian employees to Canada.

The express entry program draws are held periodically. The most recent one was conducted on June 21. Canada’s multi-year immigration plan has a target to welcome 3.30 lakh immigrants in 2019, and 3.40 lakh in 2020.

Two Congresswomen from California have re-introduced legislation May 29, to protect the much-treasured work authorization for spouses on H-4 Visas, which affect mostly women from India. But even as the Trump administration has warned it is moving toward revoking the privilege, a leading attorney who was behind drafting the Obama-era rule, says the right to work is not going anywhere fast.

Representatives Anna G. Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, both Democrats, reintroduced the “H-4 Employment Protection Act,” in a renewed bid to prevent the Trump Administration from revoking an Obama-era rule that extends work authorization to certain spouses of H-1B visa holders, including thousands of immigrants in Silicon Valley. Indian spouses, mostly women, were the largest beneficiaries of the H-4EAD.

Currently, the H-4 EAD removal proposal is with the Office of Management and Budget which is reviewing it, and during which time stakeholders are allowed to meet with OMB. The publi comment period will begin after the proposal has been approved by OMB, and published in the Federal Register.

The introduction of such a legislation comes days after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it would publish this month the long-promised regulation that would prevent the work authorisation to spouses on H-4 visas. H-4 visas are issued to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India.

This week, the Trump administration announced plans to overturn current the DHS regulations that allow certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders who are stuck in green card backlogs to obtain employment authorisation, pursue their own professional goals and contribute to the US economy, said the lawmakers Anna G Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren.

Many H-4 visa holders are highly skilled professionals, and the DHS previously extended eligibility for employment authorisation to them recognising the economic burdens of families of many H-1B workers, particularly those who live in high cost areas like Silicon Valley on a single income as they await green card approvals, they said.

Since the rule was implemented, over 100,000 workers, mainly women, have received employment authorization, and the H-4 Employment Protection Act prohibits the Trump administration from revoking this important rule. “H-4 visa holders deserve a chance to contribute to their local economies and provide for their families,” Eshoo said.

“This is a matter of economic fairness and this legislation ensures it will continue,” she added. H-4 visa holders had obtained work permits under a special order issued by the previous Obama administration. Indian-Americans were a major beneficiary of this provision.

More than one lakh H-4 visa holders have been beneficiary of this rule. “While the Trump administration sits on its hands and does nothing, American citizens in-waiting are stuck in line for their number to come up,” Lofgren said.

“Nobody benefits from this system, least of all the American economy, when H-1B dependent spouses are prohibited from working. Many of these are accomplished and qualified individuals whose skills we’ll lose to other countries unless the Administration finds a more sensible approach to immigration,” she said.

Since the work authorization rule was implemented in 2015, according to various estimates, around 70,000 to 100,000 workers, mainly high-skilled women from India, have received employment authorization.

According to Doug Rand, founder of boundless.com, an firm that says its mission is to help immigrants “navigate the immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably”, the demise of H4-EAD, is not on the near horizon. Rand was Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship, in the Obama White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, and played a key role in drafting the H-4EAD rule.

Doug Rand, co-founder and president of Boundless Immigration, and former Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship in President Obama’s White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. (Photo: LinkedIn)

“It’s important to understand that the administration hasn’t even officially started the process of eliminating work permits for H-4 visa holders,” Rand told News India Times in an email response to a query. Rand was one of the principal drafters of the Obama-era rule that created the EAD.

“The first step, a “proposed rule,” is expected within the next few months, typically followed by a two-month period for public comments,” Rand said. “Then USCIS must process all of these comments (which will probably number in the tens of thousands), formulate a response, and publish a “final rule.” Only then will H-4 work permit applications and extensions be prohibited going forward.”

According to Rand, “This whole process, start to finish, will probably take 6 months at the very least, and usually takes over 12 months.” He predicts there will “almost certainly” be lawsuits seeking to freeze the USCIS final rule while the litigation makes its way through the courts.

“Therefore it’s safe to conclude that (a) nobody with a current work permit is going to lose it until it expires, (b) any prohibition of new H-4 work permit applications and extensions is probably at least 6 months away, and (c) there’s a reasonable chance that the courts will preserve H-4 EADs in the long run.”

The H.R. 1044, Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, if passed, would cut the decades of wait times for skilled immigrants who are stuck in the green card backlog by eliminating the caps.

Bill 1044, which has 297 co-sponsors as of now and has been referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of such visas available that year to 15%, and eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant visas, apart from other stipulations.

Meanwhile, on the H-4EAD protection bill, Eshoo and Lofgren pointed to the rationale for the work authorization, noting that it  recognized the economic burdens  that families of many H-1B workers, particularly those who live in high cost areas like Silicon Valley on a single income, while in the green-card pipeline.

“H-4 visa holders deserve a chance to contribute to their local economies and provide for their families,” Rep. Eshoo is quoted saying in a May 29 press release. “This is a matter of economic fairness and this legislation ensures it will continue.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the start of the fiscal year (FY) 2020 H-1B cap season, start dates for premium processing of cap-subject H-1B petitions, and the launch of its new H-1B data hub, while reminding petitioners of its new H-1B cap selection process.

These new efforts underscore the agency’s commitment to supporting President Trump’s Buy American and Hire American executive order designed to protect U.S. workers.

“USCIS continually strives to improve the administration of the H-1B program and make it work better for employers, our agency, and U.S. workers,” said USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna. “We are also committed to fulfilling the president’s Buy American and Hire American executive order, one of the principal goals of which is to protect the interests of U.S. workers in the administration of our immigration system, in part by promoting the proper functioning of the H-1B visa program. Our new H-1B data hub will make information more accessible to the public, and the new selection process will help make the system more meritorious and better protect the wages of U.S. workers. Additionally, our two-phased approach to premium processing will make the process more effective and efficient for employers and USCIS.”

Start of FY 2020 Cap Season

USCIS will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2020 cap on April 1, 2019, and will reject any FY 2020 cap-subject H‑1B petitions filed before April 1. H-1B petitioners must follow all statutory and regulatory requirements as they prepare petitions to avoid delays in processing and possible requests for evidence. Form M-735, Optional Checklist for Form I-129 H-1B Filings, provides detailed information on how to complete and submit an FY 2020 H-1B petition.

Premium Processing for FY 2020 Cap-Subject Petitions

Premium processing will be offered in a two-phased approach during the FY 2020 cap season so USCIS can best manage the premium processing requests without fully suspending it as in previous years. The first phase will include FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions requesting a change of status and the second phase will include all other FY 2020 cap-subject petitions.

Starting April 1, FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitioners requesting a change of status on their Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, may request premium processing by concurrently filing Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service. However, to prioritize data entry for cap-subject H-1B petitions, USCIS will not begin premium processing for these petitions immediately. USCIS will begin premium processing for these petitions no later than May 20, 2019, and will notify the public before premium processing begins for these petitions.

If a petitioner does not file Form I-907 concurrently with an FY 2020 H-1B cap-subject petition requesting a change of status, the petitioner must wait until premium processing begins to submit Form I-907. Until premium processing begins for these petitions, USCIS will reject any Form I-907 that is not filed concurrently with a cap-subject Form I-129. Petitioners must appropriately select response “b” for Item 4 in Part 2 of Form I-129 to be eligible to concurrently file Form I-907.

Premium processing for all other FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions will not begin until at least June 2019. Cap-subject petitioners not requesting a change of status may not submit their premium processing request concurrently with their H-1B petition. These petitioners will be eligible to upgrade to premium processing by filing Form I-907 once premium processing begins for this group. USCIS will notify the public with a confirmed date for premium processing for cap-subject petitioners not requesting a change of status.

At this time, premium processing for H-1B petitions that are exempt from the cap, such as extension of stay requests, remains available.

New H-1B Data Hub

USCIS is also announcing the new H-1B Employer Data Hub that will be available on uscis.gov on April 1. The data hub is part of USCIS’ continued effort to increase the transparency of the H-1B program by allowing the public to search for H-1B petitioners by fiscal year, NAICS industry code, company name, city, state, or zip code. This will give the public the ability to calculate approval and denial rates and to review which employers are using the H-1B program.

New H-1B Cap Selection Process

In January, the Department of Homeland Security announced a final rule amending regulations governing cap-subject H-1B petitions, including those that may be eligible for the advanced degree exemption. The final rule reverses the order by which USCIS selects H-1B petitions under the H-1B regular cap and the advanced degree exemption, which will be in effect for the FY 2020 cap season. This simple change increases the chances that more of these visas will be granted to those with an advanced degree from a U.S. institution of higher education.

The H-1B program allows companies in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent. Congress has set a cap of 65,000 H-1B visas per fiscal year. An advanced degree exemption from the H-1B cap is available for 20,000 beneficiaries who have earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education. The agency will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public when the H-1B numerical allocations have been met.

For more information on the H-1B cap, and to subscribe to H-1B cap season email updates, visit the H-1B FY 2020 Cap Season page. For current Form I-129 processing times, visit the Check Case Processing Times page.

The new policies and procedures by Trump administration has led to denials of Visa to the United States in the past year. A new analysis by a policy research group that scrupulously tracks immigration related issues and trade has said that there has been a large increase in the visa refusals by the U.S. State Department in fiscal year 2018, thanks to the “extreme vetting” and “public charge” changes imposed by the Trump administration, having a major impact.

The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), based in Arlington, Va., using new data released by the State Department, said that it found “implementing ‘extreme vetting’ for visas and new ‘public charge’ eligibility requirements is increasing the number of immigrants and applicants for temporary visas denied entry to the United States.”

The NFAP noted that between FY 2016 and FY 2018 the number of temporary visas issued declined 1,353,465 or 13 percent. NFAP pointed out that the number of immigrants issued visas declined from 559,536 in FY 2017 to 533,557 in FY 2018, a decline of 5 percent, and between FY 2016 and FY 2018 the number immigrants issued visas declined 14 percent.

In comparing data for Fiscal Year 2017 to Fiscal Year 2018, the NFAP found ineligibility findings used by the State Department to refuse visa applicants increased 39 percent for immigrants and 5 percent for nonimmigrants–individuals seeking temporary visas– between FY 2017 and FY 2018.

“The trend continued in FY 2018, with F visas for Indians declining 4 percent or 2,058 visas, from FY 2017 to FY 2018,” it said. The approval rate of H-1B visas has dropped from 96 percent in 2015 to 85 percent in 2018 in new data released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and now there’s now a clearer picture as to why.

It said the number of temporary visas issued declined 7 percent from FY 2017 to FY 2018, while the number of immigrant (permanent resident) visas issued declined 5 percent, and predicted that “immigrant and temporary visas could continue to decline in FY 2019 and FY 2020 due to restrictive policies from the Trump administration.”

“The State Department data show a similar trend for immigrants seeking permanent residence, primarily family-based immigrants, since employment-based immigrants typically gain permanent residence (a green card) while adjusting from a temporary status (such as H-1B) inside the United States,” the policy group said.

That presidential memorandum stated, “I direct the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security . . . to rigorously enforce all existing grounds of inadmissibility and to ensure subsequent compliance with related laws after admission.”

The NFAP report also said that “the decline in international students from India has been significant,” pointing out that “the number of F student visas issued to India fell by 20,013 or 31 percent between FY 2016 and FY 2018.”

Immigrants with specialized skills say they are being denied visas or encountering lengthy delays because the U.S. government is increasingly asking for evidence that the job they’re seeking is visa-worthy, according to an Associated Press report on the data. The Trump administration has said it wants to crack down on work visas issued under the controversial program.

Government requests for evidence, which delay the visa process, have increased overall to 60 percent since 2015. Just three years ago, they were at 35 percent — a number considered high at the time.

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute, said the data shows how effective the Trump administration’s efforts are in limiting applications from foreign consulting companies. Her institute supports immigration programs.

Approved petitions of H-1B visas for foreign consulting companies saw a “pretty significant” decrease between 2017 and 2018, according to Pierce. “It does look like the administration is hitting them, and that is their intention,” she said.

The spouses of certain U.S. visa holders granted permission to work under an Obama-era rule are now one step closer to seeing that authorization removed. The proposed regulation was officially delivered to the Office of Management and Budget for review last Wednesday, according to a government database, which means the Department of Homeland Security has finished its work on the policy. Changes to the visa program were first discussed in 2017, according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson.

The rule change would strip employment authorization from the spouses of H-1B visa recipients who are on track for green cards to work in the United States. The H-1B program attracts foreign specialized workers — many of them from India and China — to come to the U.S. for employment.

“The news really is this rule is finally moving forward as a proposal in a formal way,” said William Stock, an immigration lawyer from Philadelphia and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

USCIS spokesperson Jessica Collins said in a statement to NBC News that the agency continues to review all employment-based visa programs, including employment authorization documents for H-4 visas.

“No decision about the regulation concerning the employment eligibility of certain H-4 spouses is final until the rule-making process is complete,” she said.

Stock said that once the Office of Management and Budget completes its review, the regulation could be sent back to the Department of Homeland Security, or it could be cleared for publication in the Federal Register as a proposed rule.

After that, there’s typically a 30-to-90 day public comment, with 60 days being normal, he said. The comments are reviewed and a final rule is made.

According to the USCIS, there have been close to 91,000 initial approved applications for H-4 work authorization since the original 2015 rule was created by the Obama administration.

Proponents have argued that the rule helps alleviate financial pressures of H-1B families that would otherwise have to manage on a single income, a move that can help retain overseas talent in the U.S.

But it has also drawn criticism, including from Save Jobs USA, a group comprised of laid-off computer workers in California who claim their jobs were filled by programmers from India on H-1B visas.

Save Jobs USA filed a federal lawsuit in 2015 to block the H-4 rule after it was announced. That case has been pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“There’s a court deadline, which may be why they’re pushing this forward,” Stock said of the Trump administration’s proposed rule change