Topics Covered: Indian Diaspora.
Biden revokes Trump’s immigrant visa ban:
Context:
The Biden administration has revoked Donald Trump’s suspension of new immigrant visas, which had been in effect since late April 2020.
- The revoked order had suspended the entry of certain immigrants and non-immigrants into the U.S. ostensibly on grounds of protecting the U.S. labour market in the wake of COVID-19.
What’s the issue now?
Mr. Biden, however, did not revoke a Trump administration pause on H1-B (skilled worker), L (intra-company transfer) and several other work and exchange visitor visa categories that went into effect on June 24, 2020.
- H1-B visas are predominantly granted to workers in the IT sector, and most of these visas — over 70% — have gone to Indian citizens in recent years.
What are H-1B, H-2B, L and other work visas?
In order to fill a vacuum of highly-skilled low-cost employees in IT and other related domains, the US administration issues a certain number of visas each year which allows companies from outside the US to send employees to work on client sites.
- H-1B: Person is Specialty Occupation: To work in a specialty occupation. Requires a higher education degree of its equivalent.
- L1 visas allows companies to transfer highly skilled workers to US for a period of up to seven years.
- H-2B visas allow food and agricultural workers to seek employment in the US.
- J-1 Visas: It is for students on work-study summer programmes.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Differences between H1B, F1 and M1 Visas.
- Difference between an NRI and an OCI cardholder.
- When OCI and PIO were merged?
- The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 grants citizenship to?
- Constitutional provisions related to citizenship in India.
Mains Link:
Discuss the impact of recent changes in US visa rules on Indian students in the US.
Sources: the Hindu.