Securing work & Spousal Visas in America will get tougher for Indians

“Our immigration laws should, first and foremost, promote the national interest, which includes job creation, sustainment, and protection for U.S. workers, points recognized in the April 18, 2017 President’s executive order entitled Buy American, Hire American,” Homeland Security Department Secretary Kristen Nielsen told Congress in December 2018. “We want industry to have the workforce it needs, but that should not come at the expense of American workers. When a qualified and willing American worker is qualified for hire, he or she should be hired before looking abroad…Immigration policy decisions will protect the economic interests of the American people,” the secretary added.

Perhaps no other visa category has received as much attention in recent years as the H-1B, as reports of abuse of the program have caused outrage among the public, the secretary noted. “No qualified hard-working American should be forced to train their H-1B replacement, and then let go. The number of H-1B petitions routinely exceeds the statutory cap, and among that pool of petitions, we should endeavor to select the very best for the privilege of coming to the United States for work. DHS seeks to ensure that American workers are not pushed aside for the promise of cheaper, foreign labor, and that employers, recruiters, or any of their agents do not exploit foreign workers.”

Impact of President Trump’s Buy American Hire American policy

“We stepped up our measures to detect employment-based visa fraud and abuse, but certain non-immigrant visa programs need reform in order to protect American workers better. While current law only requires it for certain employers, which are few in number and can easily meet the wage and degree exemption, all employers should be required to certify that they have made a good faith effort to recruit U.S. workers before filing an H-1B petition, and have offered jobs to qualified and available American applicants. Although current law prohibits some H-1B employers from displacing U.S. workers, there are loopholes that must close. We have to make sure the H-1B program does not harm American workers who may be as qualified and willing to do jobs that foreign workers are imported to fill.”

“Per President Trump’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, DHS is reviewing current guidance and regulation for opportunities to protect American workers while also providing good faith employers the opportunity to recruit H-1B workers where needed. This balance is consistent with the statute and President Trump’s priorities. We also seek to work with Congress to make legislative changes that would provide more protections to the United States workforce.”

Rising Criminal Prosecutions of visa violators

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security increased criminal prosecutions of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers. In 2018, the department opened approximately 6,860 work-site investigations, a four-fold increase over FY 2017 and initiated about 5,950, also a four-fold increase from FY 2017.

America’s non-immigrant temporary work categories are not meant to supplant, but rather supplement, the workforce in the United States, the secretary continued. “Over the past few years, we have seen high profile stories of American tech workers terminated from jobs after training their foreign worker replacements. That is unacceptable. Exploiting legal and illegal workers by paying them less or treating them unfairly will not be tolerated. To this end, DHS is conducting an ongoing review of all policies, guidance, and regulations governing the implementation of our legal immigration system to ensure that the American people we serve are protected.”

The U.S. is also cracking down on violations of student visas and tightening issuance of asylum. “We have prioritized efforts to identify and locate student visa overstays and send leads that are more actionable to the field offices throughout the country. As a result, ICE HSI sent 3,918 leads on student visa and exchange visitors to the field in FY 2017, an increase of approximately 65 percent from FY 2016,” said the secretary.

“We have also taken action to reduce asylum fraud. For example, this year we returned to an approach of processing affirmative asylum claims used successfully from 1995 through 2014,” the Secretary continued. Known as “Last In, First Out,” it means the administration prioritizes”…the most recently filed applications when scheduling affirmative asylum interviews. The aim is to deter individuals from using the asylum backlogs solely to obtain employment authorization – for example, someone who has been here for years looking for employment and is only now claiming asylum. Giving priority to recent filings allows us to place promptly such individuals into removal proceedings if we determine they filed a frivolous, fraudulent or otherwise non-meritorious asylum application. This approach also allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to decide qualified applications in a more efficient manner.“