Google, Apple and Microsoft have internally warned H-1B visa holders they may get caught overseas for months
A number of main US tech firms – together with Google, Apple, and Microsoft – have warned foreign-national workers holding H-1B visas in opposition to touring exterior the nation amid President Donald Trump’s immigration clampdown, which may go away them stranded overseas for months, Enterprise Insider reported.
The H-1B visa permits overseas nationals to work in specialty occupations within the US and is usually issued for as much as three years. Extensions require visa stamping at US embassies or consulates overseas. Routine appointments at the moment are going through important delays following the introduction of a brand new social-media screening requirement affecting H-1B employees and their dependents, in addition to college students and trade guests.
In keeping with inside memos reviewed by Enterprise Insider, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and IT automation agency ServiceNow are among the many firms advising visa-holding workers to keep away from worldwide journey.
BAL Immigration Regulation, which represents Google, warned that delays at some US embassies and consulates are “presently reported as as much as 12 months,” cautioning that workers who journey threat “an prolonged keep exterior the US.”
Apple issued related steerage, urging employees with out legitimate H-1B visa stamps to postpone journey. Microsoft additionally cautioned workers, advising workers nonetheless within the US to “strongly take into account altering” their journey plans.
A State Division spokesperson advised Enterprise Insider on Friday that US embassies and consulates at the moment are “prioritizing completely vetting every visa case above all else.”
Since returning to workplace in January, Trump has revived a hardline strategy to frame and visa enforcement geared toward curbing unlawful immigration. Following an assault on two Nationwide Guard troopers in Washington in late November, Trump introduced extra measures, together with the suspension of asylum procedures and expanded entry bans affecting nationals of 19 nations.
The Range Immigrant Visa (DV-1) program, generally often called the Inexperienced Card Lottery, was additionally suspended after US authorities decided {that a} suspect in latest shootings at Brown College and the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise had entered the nation by that system.
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