The government has announced the anticipated changes to temporary worker H-1B visa rules. New rules for high-skilled foreign workers seeking an H-1B visa to work in the United States were announced on October 7, 2020, and go into effect immediately. The new rules make it more expensive for employers to hire foreign workers and more difficult for workers to qualify for a temporary work visa. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted a new regulation for immigration federal review that would toughen H-1B eligibility and impose new obligations on the companies trying to bring foreign workers to fill American job openings.
• require employers to pay H-1B workers higher wages
• restrict the credentials foreign workers need to apply for an H-1B work visa
• shorten the length of visa time for some H-1B workers from 3 years to 1 year
The new H-1B rules affect new visa applicants and renewals, not foreign workers with a valid work visa.
The new wage requirements go into effect immediately and impact any applicant who hasn’t filed paperwork with the Labor Department before Thursday, October 8. Business experts predict that if the government continues to limit the number of H-1B workers tech companies can bring to the U.S., companies may send the work overseas instead. Due to COVID work from home restrictions, tech companies are increasingly comfortable with hiring and managing a remote workforce.
Immigration experts predict the new rules will face legal challenges due to the lack of a public notice and review, and challenges to the validity of the appointment of Chad Wolf as the acting secretary of Homeland Security,.
On June 22 President Trump signed an executive order that restricts work visas through 2020. The new restrictions will prevent hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from working in the United States and will strengthen his ongoing efforts to limit legal immigration. The new visa cutbacks are an expansion of a 60-day executive order to suspend green cards that the government enacted in April in response to the coronavirus. The government says the new expanded order is a result of high U.S. unemployment due to the COVID pandemic.
Read More:
• USCIS Implements New Process for 2021 H-1B Lottery
• Startups That Win the H-1B Lottery Get More Funding
Godoy Law Office is an established immigration law firm in Chicago and Lombard, Illinois, with attorneys who are ready to help you apply for legal immigration status if you are eligible. If you need help with an immigration issue, please contact our office at 855-554-6369.
Godoy Law Office serves the entire Chicago, Illinois area including DuPage, Cook, Kane, Will, and Lake Counties.
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