Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram

President Trump to Push Congress to Reform Access to H-1B Visas

by Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram on April 18, 2017

President Trump is Set to Reform Access to H1B Visas

By Chris M. Ingram, LL.M., ESQ

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If you or someone you know is currently on an H-1B visa, it’s time to begin to consider exploring options asap to switch to another visa. President Trump has long had his eye on limiting access to the H-1B program and is poised to sign an Executive Order to call for Congress to change the laws governing H-1B visas.

The irony with the H-1B visa program is that it’s relatively small. Only 65,000 are available for foreign educated aliens and a further 20,000 are available for aliens who earned a Masters in a US University. So, we have a program that can benefit up to 85,000 aliens per year. Thus, H-1B aliens represent a tiny fraction of the American workforce.

Many of the best IT programmers in the world are coming from India and Pakistan. Most have advanced degrees and bring a lot to the table. We need them.

To ‘Make America Great Again’, we need the best and the brightest from around the world. To be honest we need more, not less. Silicon Valley in particular is being weighted down because their ideas for innovation and growth cannot be realized. This is because these companies cannot find sufficient US graduates, so they have to recruit from the limited H-1B visas available. If President Trump pushes Congress to further limit the availability of the H-1B visas he will be hurting America not making America – just ask any CEO of a Tech Company.

Australia is reinventing itself from a Coal and Minerals nation to a High Tech Driven nation and is now actively poaching TECH talent to its shores.

Whilst I’m hoping that as President Trump pushes Congress to act that Congress will, in turn, push back due to the backlash from the Tech Industry in particular, however, it’s not a guarantee. President Trump will be going to the rust belts of America proclaiming that by cutting back or eliminating H-1B visas Americans will have more job. The possibility is that if US companies simply cannot get the right qualified workers they will be compelled to move their companies abroad at an even faster level thus taking more American jobs away.

CEOs Desperate for more TECH workers are actively engaged in this fight.

The time to act is now. If you or someone you know is currently on an H-1B visa, you need to act fast to begin laying the ground work for your green card or visa alternative. Do not wait until it’s too late. Please give us a call so we can discuss creative ways to help you secure a green card. We have significant expertise in working with clients stuck on an H-1B visa in helping them secure their EB1, EB2 and EB3 green cards, but there is a lot of work involved and it can take a while. Call us today for a free consultation.

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