US Immigration Update: International Students, Workers and Visa Processing

It has been a busy time for Immigration professionals and Immigration law in the US. Recent developments have been chaotic, and worrying for a number of different stakeholders. In this update, we aim to provide a summary of some of the recent changes, as well as some possible workarounds which many people and organizations are undertaking to navigate the current chaos.

International Students

Immigration and Customs Enforcement have announced that students who only have online courses in the fall semester, will be forced to leave the United States, as the terms of their study visas require them to attend in person classes. More details are available here.

In response, many universities are offering hybrid course offerings, allowing international students to attend some courses in-person. In addition, some universities, including MIT and Harvard, are suing the government over their policy. Unfortunately, given the proximity of this announcement to the start of the fall term, a lawsuit may not yield a timely result for international students committed to attendance in the fall, and this timeframe may be too short to allow international students to transfer schools.

It also seems that this move is a prompt from the government to force major universities, particularly those which rely on international students, to remain open during the fall. This effort could be directed at maintaining economic activity and preventing stoppages arising from the Coronavirus pandemic. In this situation, the government is favoring the economy over public health.

International Workers

In June, Donald Trump announced the suspension of visa processing for various immigrant worker categories including L (transfers between companies), H(temporary workers), and J(Exchange workers/visiting researchers). In addition, Immigrant Visa processing for employment based or other non-family based categories (green card applicants), with the exception of certain investors, have also been suspended. The link to the proclamations/orders are here and here.

The rationale for these new orders is the protection of “local” participants in the job market. It is assumed that restricting the supply of labor will drive wages up, and force companies to hire locally. However, the reality may well be that a large number of tech companies will face a brain drain, and rely more heavily on the digital economy, outsourcing and setting up offices overseas. Many companies have considered sending employees to other work locations, including Canada, which will become a more favorable destination for immigration.

Total Immigration Shutdown

Due to increased measures and review standards imposed by USCIS, and fewer petitions/immigrants applying to come to the United States in recent years, which has been exacerbated by the Covid19 pandemic, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is facing shortfalls in its budget. USCIS is mostly self funded, due to various fees charged to Immigration applicants for petitions. It has submitted an emergency budget request to the US congress in May of this year, which has not been approved till date. If USCIS does not receive their funding, staff members are likely to be furloughed. This will slow down immigration processing even further, and cause significant delays in immigration applications. The problems faced by potential immigrants or applicants in this regard are significant, and clients should be aware of obstacles this may cause for their intended immigration to the United States. More information is available here.

Business and tourist visitors are likely to still be welcome

When the US borders do open up, visitors and business people, particularly investors or entrepreneurs, are likely to remain welcome in the US. For employees at tech or other companies, this can mean that there would be a potential opportunity to transition from employee to contractor status, to continue working or doing business in the US. Though this is a less stable and short term option, it appears that the US government is looking to encourage this kind of business presence with respect to foreigners. The aim is to maximize capital inflow from investors, while reducing the flow of funds to foreign workers. At the same time, the US government has recently announced new ten year multiple re-entry visit visas for citizens of the Kingdom of Bahrain, for example, emphasizing that temporary visitors and business people will still be encouraged to visit the United States.

If you are facing any problems with your US immigration, do get in touch with us at info@borderlesscounsel.com.