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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline DECEMBER 31, 2021 | The Indian Eye 27

H-1B viSa ProceSS

Relief for Indian Americans as

Biden changes Trump law linking

selection process with wages

Across America, tens of thousands of immigrant women, most of them Indian, have been unemployed through the pandemic.

Many families reeling under mortgages and debts have spent the difficult Covid-19 period on a single income

OUR BUREAU from the current lottery-based sys- Selection Final Rule to Dec 31, 2021 quires a work authorization issued
tem to one by ranking based gener- in view of the ongoing litigation in and renewed by the USCIS every
Washington, DC
ally on corresponding wage levels. the California court. For the FY few years.
he Biden administration has Currently Indian tech profes- 2023 H-1B numerical allocations, For the past couple of years,
withdrawn a rule that would sionals get more than 70% of the the earliest date that H-1B cap-sub- most work permit holders have been
Thave changed the H-1B visa 85,000 H-1B issued to foreigners ject petitions may be filed is April 1, experiencing unexplained delays in
selection process for high skilled to meet the shortage of high skilled 2022, such that registration is likely the processing time for their EAD
foreign workers linking it to corre- local workers in the US. Several in- to commence in early March 2022, or work permits, some even waiting
sponding wage levels in the US in- dustry bodies and companies had DHS announced Wednesday. for more than a year to get their per-
dustry. The Department of Home- opposed the proposal with some go- Across America, tens of thou- mit.
land Security Wednesday published ing to court. sands of immigrant women, most As a result, with their permits
in the Federal Register a H-1B final of them Indian, have been unem- expiring before the renewal they
rule withdrawing the one issued on one of the last rules issued by ployed through the pandemic. Many were forced to give up on their jobs.
Jan. 8, 2021 in the last days of the families reeling under mortgages On Tuesday, 23 US House members
outgoing Trump administration. the administration of former and debts have spent the difficult led by Deborah Ross wrote a let-
Announcing the withdrawal, uS President donald trump, it Covid-19 period on a single income. ter to Homeland Security secretary
the US Citizenship and Immigra- It’s not that these women have Alejandro Mayorkas and USCIS di-
tion Services (USCIS) noted that was supposed to take effect on always been unemployed. In fact rector Ur Mendoza Jaddou asking
the rule was vacated by the US Dis- march 9 this year and would many of them holding professional them to fix this problem faced by
trict Court for the Northern District degrees were employed in high-pro- immigrants on work visas.
of California on Sept. 15, 2021 on have impacted the H-1B pro- file jobs in important fields ranging Signed among others by Indi-
a challenge by the US Chamber of cess for financial year 2022. from STEM to academics. an American House members Raja
Commerce among others. The reason for this less-talked Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna
The rule would have changed about forced unemployment is that and Sheila Jackson Lee, the letter
the way USCIS selects H-1B regis- However, on Feb 8 DHS de- these women had been working on urged them to reduce processing de-
trations or petitions, moving away layed the effective date of the H-1B dependent visas in the US, which re- lays for spousal work authorizations.

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