No One ‘Is Safe’: H-1B Visa Approvals Plunged 10% Last Year, Feds Say

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Melia Russell
Photo: FILE – In this April 18, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump holds up the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order which he signed during a visit to the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc. in Kenosha, Wis. Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to Trump’s promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the best and brightest. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh, Associated Press)

According to new data released by the federal government on the state of the H-1B visa, commonly used for high-skilled workers in tech, there has been an abrupt drop in approvals for a work permit that once was granted routinely.

Fewer foreign nationals applied for new or renewed H-1B visas, whose recipients are picked out of a lottery, from October 2017 to September compared to the previous 12-month period, and far fewer were granted admission. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it approved 335,000 of the visas in fiscal year 2018, down 10% from approvals in 2017.

President Trump, who issued a “Buy American, Hire American” executive order in 2017, has said he wants higher skilled workers to come into the country, while also stemming the flow of migrants illegally crossing the southern border. This year, the administration tinkered with the H-1B lottery to give an edge to foreigners with advanced degrees from American colleges and universities.

The latest numbers show that even those workers with special knowledge and advanced degrees are facing challenges getting in, immigration lawyers say.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/No-one-is-safe-H-1B-visa-approvals-plunged