The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American companies to employ foreign workers.
Washington:
Temporary suspension of overseas work visas, including the most wanted H-1B visas, is a short-sighted policy that threatens academic engagement, said a major American university.
Harvard University spokesman Jonathan L Swain said Thursday that it did not affect student visas or optional practical training (OPT), but it is disappointing that the decree prohibits entry to certain new non-immigrant visa holders, including H-1B.
Monday, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation to suspend the most wanted H-1B visas and other types of foreign work visas until the end of 2020 to protect American workers for a year crucial election.
Trump argued that this step was essential to helping the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the current economic crisis. The temporary suspension, according to the White House, will put more than half a million jobs at the disposal of Americans.
“In our view, this is a short-sighted policy that threatens academic engagement,” said Swain to the academic publication The Harvard Crimson.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American companies to employ foreign workers in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees from countries like India and China every year.
A few days before President Trump issued the proclamation to suspend several types of work visas, University President Lawrence S Bacow urged his administration to adopt “cutting-edge immigration policies”.
In a June 2 letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, Bacow urged “to reject efforts to limit” specific programs for international academics: namely, OPT and the STEM extension.
OPT allows students who have completed at least one academic year to use their student visas to work in the United States for one year in order to gain professional experience related to their field of study and complementary to their studies, a said Crimson.
Students who receive degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math can also request an additional 24-month extension, known as the STEM extension, the report says.
“Experiential learning is an important hands-on experience as well as a recruiting tool for those looking to hire the best talent,” Bacow wrote in the letter.
