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President Donald Trump’s H-1B reforms will shrink the Fortune 500’s large-scale use of cheap Indian gig-workers, say opponents and supporters.The immediate beneficiaries may include thousands of middle-class Americans at the Vanguard Group, Ascension Healthcare, and other companies who have been told they will soon lose their jobs to Indian contract-workers imported by Indian-run staffing companies, such as HCL and Infosys. The staffing H-1B gig-workers comprise seven-in-ten of the more than 600,000 H-1Bs in the United States.Industry representatives and lawyers are objecting to the new rules, which will dramatically raise the cost of hiring foreign workers and reduce the CEOs’ incentives...

Utilizing the new Presidential proclamations INA 212(f) and 215, prevents entry into the U.S. of certain non-immigrants. We think that the ban will be announced and come into force around June 15th, 2020.

According to an article published by Forbes, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached an agreement with business group, ITServe Alliance, which brings to an end a decade of restrictive H1B visa policies imposed on employers. The settlement comes following two key rulings against USCIS.On March 20, 2020 a District Court opinion rejected key actions taken by USCIS, while more recently, on May 20, a judge in Georgia ruled against USCIS policies. For many employers, problems they encountered with USCIS started back on January 8, 2010 after the ‘Neufeld’ memo was issued.In the memo, USCIS seized the authority...

The pro-immigration lawyers are apoplectic, which is always a sign for celebration. As in other Trump achievements during his first year, the President is accomplishing a cutback on foreign tech workers displacing Americans entirely on his own. The Republican Congress remains stubbornly opposed to the immigration restrictions Republican voters want. The main tool at President Trump’s disposal is the appointment of a new agency head, in this case Francis Cissna as director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who came on board in October, followed in swift order by the novel idea of actually following the law and...

This morning’s headline at one Indian news website said it all: “Trouble for Indian Techies” The “trouble” is coming from a move by the Trump administration that will raise the bar for H-1B visa holders in the United States seeking to renew their permits to work here. Also impacted by the directive announced this week is the L1 visa, which is popular among foreign IT professionals. The Trump team wants visa holders to carry the burden of proof not only when applying for an H-1B the first time, but every time an extension is sought.

The Trump administration is beginning to impose restrictions on visas for foreign workers, creating new uncertainty for the tech industry. The White House appeared poised to enact sweeping new restrictions on worker visas earlier this year, when Vox obtained a draft executive order with a slew of policy changes under consideration. The draft said the policies were aimed at prioritizing “the interests of American workers and — to the maximum degree possible — the jobs, wages, and well-being of those workers.” That executive order was never issued, but it appears that some of the ideas it contained are now winding...

If you were bright -- and gifted in science and engineering -- the H-1B visa was your ticket to the United States. But maybe not for long. The lottery for such “high-skilled" worker visas opened Monday, with the 85,000 slots expected to fill in a matter of days. Nearly three-quarters of the visas are expected to go to Indian workers, as they have in recent years. But the Trump administration injected new uncertainty into the H-1B visa process Monday -- warning employers against discriminating against U.S.-born workers and announcing site visits to companies that employ a high ratio of workers...

The Justice and Homeland Security departments issued startling warnings Monday to companies applying for the country’s most prominent foreign guest-worker program, telling executives to look for Americans to fill those jobs first and promising more investigations and prosecutions of businesses that abuse the system. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, also released rules on Friday that could curtail the number of computer programmers who get H-1B visas, designated for specialty occupations that American companies have a tough time filling.

"...What it means: This aligns with the administration's focus on reserving the temporary visas for very high-skilled (and higher-paid) professionals while encouraging low- and mid-level jobs to go to American workers instead. The new guidance affects applications for the lottery for 2018 fiscal year that opened Monday..."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced steps on Monday to prevent the fraudulent use of H1B visas, used by employers to bring in specialized foreign workers temporarily, which appeared to fall short of President Donald Trump's campaign promises to overhaul the program. Trump had promised to end the lottery system for H1B visas, which gives each applicant an equal chance at 65,000 positions each year. Lobbyists for businesses who rely on H1B visas, commonly used by the tech sector, had expected Trump to upend the lottery in favor of a system that prioritized workers who are highly skilled and...

As Nasdaq reaches ever record-er, record highs, it seems the ability to create a "Hello World" app is no longer enough to warrant an H1-B visa according to new guidelines from the Trump administration. the new policy guidance that would make it harder for companies to use the H-1B visa program to bring foreign computer programmers into the U.S. A policy memo from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changes the way the agency will process visa applications for computer programming positions, making companies jump through extra hoops to fill those jobs with foreign workers... The memorandum also does not...

President vowed changes to the high-skilled-worker program President Donald Trump ran for office promising changes to the H-1B visa program, which brings high-skilled foreign workers to the U.S. But come Monday, the government opens another round of applications using rules that have long been in place. Demand for the program badly outstrips the supply so, as in past years, the government will use a lottery to decide which companies get them. The visas are coveted by tech firms, who have unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to increase the cap, which is set at 85,000. The new visas become available each year in...

There will be no immediate overhaul or reforms to the H-1B foreign guest worker visa program, according to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

For decades, H1B visas have been one of the cornerstones of the traditional IT outsourcing business model. In many ways, the possibility of legally sending workers to the US has allowed Indian firms to offer an enticing service: the client gets to work face to face with less expensive engineers that are authorized to temporarily work in the US, yet can also leverage a much larger team of offshore talent that is orchestrated by the on-site, visa-holding resources. The proposition is hard to beat: not only is it inexpensive, but the model can help solve time-zone issues thanks to a...

"Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions."