Trump administration to temporarily ban visas like H1B

New York : The Trump administration is working on temporarily suspending the issuance of visas like H1B, popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as students visas and work authorisation that accompanies them. This comes after the country is facing high rate of unemployment due to coronavirus pandemic.

"The president's immigration advisers are drawing up plans for a coming executive order, expected this month, that would ban the issuance of some new temporary, work-based visas," The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

"The order is expected to focus on visa categories including H-1B, designed for highly skilled workers, and H-2B, for seasonal migrant workers, as well as student visas and the work authorization that accompanies them," it said.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Nearly 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the US in the H-1B status.

Recently, it was reported that more than 33 million Americans had lost their jobs due to coronavirus pandemic lockdown.