Joe Biden revokes buy American, hire American order, eases the path to H-1B
3 min read
Joe Biden has revoked the ‘Buy American Hire American’ (BAHA) executive order of predecessor Donald Trump, which had resulted in high denials of H-1B and L-1 visas.
The move is required to translate into fewer visa rejections and requests for evidence (RFE) in the upcoming visa lottery in April for the financial year 2022 which starts on October 1.
H-1B visa denial rates expanded to 24% (in the financial year 2018) and 21% (in FY19). Compared with 10% in FY16 and 13% in FY17, after the BAHA order took effect in April 2017.
A week ago, Biden signed an executive order to strengthen manufacturing in America, and BAHA. Which was attracted up to create higher wages and employment rates for US workers by restricting immigrant workers — was revoked as part of that order.
“The BAHA policy provided justification to immigration officers to deny H-1B and L-1A petitions. For the sake of securing American workers. Since the BAHA policy came from the President, officials felt incentivized to find ways to deny these petitions even when they were otherwise meritorious,” said immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta.
However, visa denial rates had already dropped to about 1.5% in the final quarter of the past fiscal year. That ended September 30, following various US court decisions that went against the government.
The US IT industry has a shortage of talented workforce even as the US economy faces massive unemployment.
Biden revokes buy American, hire American order
The tech occupation unemployment rate was 3% in December, compared with 6.7% for the overall economy. Tech unemployment remained at 3% toward the start of 2020 and went from a low of 2.4% to a high of 4.6% during the year, US IT industry non-benefit ComTIA has said.
Around 22,000 IT workers were added in December, with 391,000 positions overall in 2020.
The positive tech employment stood out in a month where the US economy lost 140,000 jobs. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation report, ComTIA said.
Experts said it was too soon to quantify the effect of Biden’s latest move.
“I think the revocation of that memo will have an impact, however, it is difficult to quantify. BAHA essentially was a mandate to change the culture of welcoming immigrants to treating them as a danger to the US. Finishing BAHA will hopefully be the start of restoring that,”. Said Greg Siskind, founding partner at immigration law firm Siskind Susser, PC.
[Joe Biden hands another win to H-1B holders and Indian students in the US]
“One more cultural change at the agency was changing USCIS‘ statement by eliminating “welcoming immigrants” language. Hopefully, when we have Biden’s appointed USCIS Director confirmed, that will also change,” Siskind said.
On Monday, a rule reviewing the proposed increase in H-1B wages was issued in the Federal Register with a 15-day comments period.
A week ago, the US government said it would proceed with the H-4 employment authorization program. Which enabled spouses of H-1B dependents to lawfully work in the country. The program was set up for review by the Trump government to secure American jobs.
