On June 22, the White House made a proclamation restricting the issuance of non-immigrant work visas across the board, which U.S.

President Donald Trump said was to clamp down on American jobs going to foreign workers, a policy that his administration has consistently prioritised.

While the halt in visa issuance includes several categories of applicants, the broadest impact may be felt on those skilled workers abroad seeking the H-1B visa — in large part granted to Indian nationals each year.

While immigration remains a burning issue in almost every American presidency, the latest proclamation has additional significance for coming less than five months before the next presidential election.

Narayan Lakshman caught up with Sheela Murthy, founder of the Murthy Law Firm specialising in immigration cases and based out of Maryland, U.S., to discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration.

Even before he became president, candidate Trump talked about how he was probably going to go after immigrants and immigration, although he did not let the cat out of the bag over H-1B or professional workers.

But it will exacerbate the problem for those who may have travelled abroad, perhaps for a brief vacation or because of a family emergency, such as a parent being unwell, who have been stuck there since late March.

in his April 22 proclamation, Trump targeted immigrant visas of those stuck abroad trying to come to the U.S.

The saddest impact of this has been on those who are stuck because they cannot re-enter due to a combination of factors including commercial flights not being as easily available and now this proclamation.

In the proclamation, the Trump administration has said it reserves the right to extend this visa issuance ban beyond this date, if circumstances so warrant?

visa ban impact India.

Research has shown that for the biggest tech companies and other corporations that are major income producers, the H-1B visa helps to create jobs for American workers, that bringing in high-skill individuals can actually boost the U.S.

It is not going to create jobs, but it is actually going to take away jobs and make things worse.

It makes even less sense, for example, if an H-4 visa holder, a spouse of an H-1B visa holder, who does not work in the U.S.

Extending this to H-1B, L-1 and their dependents only impacts a miniscule number of jobs, in terms of those who went abroad and got stuck.

So, other than making this a big brouhaha, perhaps to show that his administration is doing so much, in reality Trump’s proclamation has at most a small effect on jobs, and that too a questionable effect given that the H-1B helps create jobs.

First, a point of clarification: the prior proclamation on legal immigration, which was issued for 60 days originally, has now been extended until December 31, 2020, so it is a total of 60 days plus six months — around eight months total.

With regard to the impact on Indian nationals and new visas: as I mentioned with regard to current H-1B visas and those who are in the U.S.

A large number of those who file for H-1B visas are those who have done a U.S.

In fact, 20,000 of the H-1B visas issued are for those who have completed a U.S.

If some of these applicants happen to be abroad, they are not going to get the visas to travel to the U.S.

On the other hand, if some of those people have other visas, let’s say tourist visas, the way the proclamation is written, for them there may be a potential legal loophole to enter the U.S.

legally, to switch from their existing visa to H-1B.

Between such applicants, those stuck abroad without a visa stamp and those who have a H-1B visa and can enter, there are many moving parts here.

It is not just H-1B visa applications that will be affected but also those using the L-1 visa to avoid the caps and quotas of the H-1B visa.

We’re seeing a little bit of a reversal here because the Trump administration has been focused on being protectionist in many ways, under the guise of helping U.S.

Joe Biden has not come out strongly with respect to an immigration policy, but having been the Vice-President under Barack Obama, the general view has been that he would continue some of the policy thinking of that administration.

Under the Obama administration there were a lot more restrictions in terms of immigration investigations, for example involving the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate.

I don’t know that Joe Biden would seek to completely re-shape immigration the way the Trump administration has looked at it.

Biden couldn’t possibly be much worse than the Trump administration in this regard.