Revocation of buy American hire American order
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday retracted the 'Buy American, Hire American (BAHA) ' executive order implemented by former president Donald Trump which caused the denial of large numbers of H-1B and L-1 visas. Biden is sticking to the assurance he delivered in his election campaign regarding development of Nation by incorporating individuals based on their merit and talents.
This move will ensure lesser visa rejections and requests for evidence (REF) in the approaching visa lottery in April for financial year 2022 to begin from October 1. There's been a significant spike in visa denial rates soaring to 24% in financial year 2018 and 21% in 2019 compared to 10% in FY16 and 13% in FY17 since the enforcement of BAHA order in April 2017. In continuation to Biden's approval to the order aiming to strengthen manufacturing in the United States, holding a vision to invite employment opportunities in the country, BAHA has been withdrawn which restricted immigrants inflow promising higher wages and jobs for US citizens.
"The BAHA order backed the immigration authorities while denying H-1B and L-1A visa applications on pretext of protection of the US Workforce. Since the implementation of BAHA policy by the President, officers felt motivated while rejecting meritorious applications on the grounds laid by unjust policies," said Immigration Attorney Cyrus Mehta. Visa denial rates have dropped by 1.5% in the previous fiscal year which ended on 30 September, after release of various court verdicts against the government. The IT industry of the United States is falling short of workforce as the economy faces unemployment.
The unemployment rate of tech occupation was 3% in December 2020, compared to 6.7% for the whole economy. The initial rate was 3% for 2020 which ranged from 2.4% to 4.6% during the year as reported by US IT industry non profit COMTIA. There has been an addition of 22,000 IT workers with 391,000 overall positions in 2020. Despite the loss of 140,000 jobs in the US economy, tech employment stood positive for that month as prescribed by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation report. Analysts are unable to quantify the impact of Biden's move at this early stage.
On Monday, a rule was published in the Federal register with a 15 day comments period, reviewing proposed increase in H-1B visas. Last week, the US administration affirmed that it would continue the H-4 programme which allowed the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the country. The program was put on hold by Trump to protect the American jobs.
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