US New Elected President Will Determine The Future Of H-1B Applicants

US presidential elections outcome will determine the future course of action for skilled professionals seeking to work in the US.

The Trump administration’s efforts to tighten the visa guidelines, particularly after the COVID-19 induced job losses affected 40 million Americans.

Will H-1B visa norms be relaxed with a change in the regime?

US-based law firms said it was easier to introduce restrictions on immigrants than relax controls, and even a new president will be hard-pressed to be more generous to the H-1B program, especially amid the pandemic that has left the American economy battered.

The H-1B programme has been under pressure for a long time and even faced challenges during the Obama administration when Joe Biden was vice-president.

“The immediate impact of a Biden victory on immigration may be felt more in administration than in policy," said global chairman at Davies and Associates Llc, New York.

Davies said that Trump’s government had been operating the US visa processing system at suboptimal efficiency, slowing the application process down, thereby reducing the number of visas issued. Biden could be expected to reverse this.

Earlier this year, Trump had issued an executive order suspending H-1B and a range of other visas in response to the pandemic. The order is set to expire at the end of the year, and it is unlikely that Biden would renew it if he is elected.

Analysts agreed that the H-1B visa, with its perceived adverse impact on American jobs, will remain politically challenging whoever wins the election.