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> The administration is specifically looking at whether it can reinterpret the "may grant" language of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act to s

> The administration is specifically looking at whether it can reinterpret the "may grant" language of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act to stop making the extentions. The act currently allows the administration to extend the H-1B visas for thousands of immigrants, predominantly Indian immigrants, beyond the allowed two three-year terms if a green card is pending. They might as well do away with the H1-B program all together. Not all H1B visas are granted for multi-year expirations. Many are granted for 6 or 9 months, and then the employer finds out that they need the person for longer and apply for extension. Also, the Green Card is tied to employment, so if you stop working for an employer because your H1B expired and DHS refuses to renew it because of this new rule (if it goes into effect) then the person has to go to the beginning of the line / process to apply for the Green Card. I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa, but if this change goes into effect, most people won't even apply for the H1B because it would make no sense. Probably what the Trump administration wants in the first place.

pandaman 9y ago
Employment Based Green Card is for the future worker. The proper way it's supposed to work is that, when hiring for non-temporary positions, you go straight for the EBGC for the foreign worker. Who, of course, is not working for you yet so he gets his GC for the future job. And it's the way it worked before H1 program has been introduced in 1990. What happens now is that people are hired in the H1B status, which is, by definition, a status for temporary worker. And then the vast majority of them suddenly realize that the job is not temporary (wow, surprise!) and they need to be in a permanent status to do this job, nobody else can (here is the proof that we tried to find somebody and failed, honestly!). So they need to go through adjustment of status (AOS) process to change their "temporary worker" status to the "permanent resident" one. Of course, while the process is going, the worker is in a vulnerable position. On one hand, he or she just claimed that they have been in the wrong status (by requesting it to be adjusted) so their temporary status became even more temporary, so to say. On the other, the EBGC has not been granted yet so the worker remains in the state of, essentially, temporary suspended deportation. For the great benefit of the employer, of course. Don't you find this strange that so many companies fail to estimate permanency of their jobs? Don't you think they might be doing this intentionally in order to exploit the AOS process?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
barrkel 9y ago
I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa While it's described that way, I don't think the statement accurately conveys the right kind of meaning. US immigration law uses intent as a principle: if you're in the US on a non-immigrant visa and you're suspected of having intent to immigrate, then that's grounds for cancelling the visa. That makes sense for tourist visas. But H-1B visas (along with L-, V- etc.) are explicitly dual-intent visas, so intent to immigrate doesn't put them at risk. So calling them non-immigrant visas is potentially misleading because they don't carry the same intent risk. They're a kind of halfway house.
Alfredo123 9y ago
> Probably what the Trump administration wants in the first place. Also this hurts only Indian and Chinese people and not the usual white people coming from say Canada or Germany.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  India and China are not the only country with backlogs in employment-based immigration.
  - Alfredo123 9y ago
    Name one other country with backlog more than 1 year which is not Mexico.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> They might as well do away with the H1-B program all together. They can't do that by executive action; they are attempting to limit the program without Congressional action. > I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa, but if this change goes into effect, most people won't even apply for the H1B because it would make no sense. It makes perfect sense as a limited term work visa; this would reduce the significance of the dual intent nature of the visa that allows immigration intent unlike other non-immigrant visas, but that's arguably peripheral to the purpose of the visa.

pandaman 9y ago

Employment Based Green Card is for the future worker. The proper way it's supposed to work is that, when hiring for non-temporary positions, you go straight for the EBGC for the foreign worker. Who, of course, is not working for you yet so he gets his GC for the future job. And it's the way it worked before H1 program has been introduced in 1990. What happens now is that people are hired in the H1B status, which is, by definition, a status for temporary worker. And then the vast majority of them suddenly realize that the job is not temporary (wow, surprise!) and they need to be in a permanent status to do this job, nobody else can (here is the proof that we tried to find somebody and failed, honestly!). So they need to go through adjustment of status (AOS) process to change their "temporary worker" status to the "permanent resident" one. Of course, while the process is going, the worker is in a vulnerable position. On one hand, he or she just claimed that they have been in the wrong status (by requesting it to be adjusted) so their temporary status became even more temporary, so to say. On the other, the EBGC has not been granted yet so the worker remains in the state of, essentially, temporary suspended deportation. For the great benefit of the employer, of course. Don't you find this strange that so many companies fail to estimate permanency of their jobs? Don't you think they might be doing this intentionally in order to exploit the AOS process?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

barrkel 9y ago

I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa While it's described that way, I don't think the statement accurately conveys the right kind of meaning. US immigration law uses intent as a principle: if you're in the US on a non-immigrant visa and you're suspected of having intent to immigrate, then that's grounds for cancelling the visa. That makes sense for tourist visas. But H-1B visas (along with L-, V- etc.) are explicitly dual-intent visas, so intent to immigrate doesn't put them at risk. So calling them non-immigrant visas is potentially misleading because they don't carry the same intent risk. They're a kind of halfway house.

Alfredo123 9y ago

> Probably what the Trump administration wants in the first place. Also this hurts only Indian and Chinese people and not the usual white people coming from say Canada or Germany.

dragonwriter 9y ago
India and China are not the only country with backlogs in employment-based immigration.
- Alfredo123 9y ago
  Name one other country with backlog more than 1 year which is not Mexico.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> They might as well do away with the H1-B program all together. They can't do that by executive action; they are attempting to limit the program without Congressional action. > I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa, but if this change goes into effect, most people won't even apply for the H1B because it would make no sense. It makes perfect sense as a limited term work visa; this would reduce the significance of the dual intent nature of the visa that allows immigration intent unlike other non-immigrant visas, but that's arguably peripheral to the purpose of the visa.