Foreign workers seeking jobs in the U.S. were almost guaranteed visa success in fiscal year 2024, with immigration authorities approving more than 97 percent of H1-B visa applications, the National Foundation for American Policy reported.
It was the second highest visa approval rate in more than a decade.
But the extraordinarily high rate could soon become a thing of the past if President-elect Donald Trump's team revives the restrictive immigration policies of his first administration, immigration advocates say. That, in turn, could have a significant impact on American businesses and other institutions that rely on highly skilled foreign workers, especially those from India, they warn.
"I think it's going to be harder and it's going to be more complicated to approve things," said Sharvari Dalal-Deini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Companies are abusing the program, critics say
Established in 1990, the H-1B program allows US employers to hire foreign talent in specialized fields such as technology, engineering and health care, with 85.000 visas issued by lottery. Indian workers have received more than 70 percent of the places in recent years, followed by Chinese nationals.
The program has long been the subject of controversy. Proponents point to its role in enabling the United States to attract top foreign talent and fill key jobs. A 2016 study by the National Endowment for American Policy found that nearly a quarter of US startups worth $XNUMX billion had a founder who first came to the US as an international student.
But critics see the program as a weapon against American workers. Ira Melman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pointed to Disney's controversial move a decade ago, when the company laid off hundreds of American workers, forcing them to train foreign nationals to replace them as a condition of receiving severance pay.
Although Disney denied any wrongdoing and won the lawsuits it was sued in, the case became a rallying cry among anti-immigrant groups.
FAIR alleges that U.S. companies use the system to hire cheaper foreign labor, driving down U.S. wages.
"There are a lot of tech workers here in the United States, and that should be the first solution for these companies, to come and hire people who are American citizens," Melman, FAIR's media director, said in an interview with Voice of America.
Melman said the program has strayed from its roots and envisioned it to be only for temporary foreign workers, with foreign nationals using it as a basis for U.S. citizenship.
"This is supposed to be a program that says you're going to come here for a period of time, while your visa lasts, and then you're going to come home," Melman said.
Criticism is shared by many Republicans in Congress, as well as Trump, who campaigned in 2016 to end what he called the "cheap labor program."
That didn't happen, but the first Trump administration quickly moved against the program after Trump issued his "Buy American, Hire American" executive order just months after taking office. Immigration officials subsequently set stricter qualifications and salary requirements for foreign workers.
Most of those rules were eventually blocked by the courts. But immigration officials have found other ways to pressure the program. They approved some visa applications for one year instead of three, abolished automatic extensions and stepped up inspections at construction sites. Visa applicants have been hit with ever-increasing requirements to provide evidence in order to process their applications, according to immigration lawyers.
The number of new visa applications denied jumped to 24 percent in 2018 and fell to 21 percent in 2019 before falling to 13 percent in 2020. That represented a sharp departure from the Obama era, when less than 10 percent were filed. request was rejected.
"What we've seen is that under the Trump administration, the gutting of the system has worked effectively," said Dalal-Deini, who served as a special counsel at the immigration service during the first Trump administration.
Trump's visa plan uncertain
Although changing the rules and regulations is cumbersome and time-consuming, immigration advocates warn of a likely return to tactics used by the first Trump administration to limit the number of visas issued to foreign workers.
Kathleen Campbell Walker, head of the immigration practice at the law firm Dickinson Wright, said she was particularly concerned that increased scrutiny by federal anti-fraud agents could slow things down and potentially create "greater difficulty" in granting H-1B visas.
"That worries me," Walker, a former AILA national president, said in an interview with VOA.
The future administration's plans for the visa program remain uncertain. Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to VOA's request for comment, but a campaign spokesman said in a statement to The Washington Post earlier this year that Trump would "restore all of his previous [immigration] policies" immediately upon returning to the White House.
While the new Trump administration is expected to focus on deporting undocumented immigrants, immigration advocates say the new administration could target both legal and illegal immigration. They also point to the appointment of immigration hardliners such as Stephen Mueller, who is Trump's new deputy chief of staff in the White House.
However, the signals are mixed. Trump floated the idea of giving green cards to foreign graduates of American colleges and universities. And key Trump ally Elon Musk is a staunch supporter of the H-1B program, with Tesla hiring 742 new foreign workers in fiscal year 2024. The company now ranks 16th on the list of US firms that hire H-1B workers.
While it's unclear what, if any, influence Musk will have on Trump's immigration policy, Walker said she's "hopeful that he might try to help make some positive changes for the H-1B category."
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