Skilled Immigrants

When some Americans talk about immigration, they picture people they want to keep out: the undocumented ones sneaking across the southern border. But when some U.S. businesses talk about immigration, they picture people they’d like to bring in, especially those with science, math or computer skills. While President Donald Trump has called for an increase in the legal immigration of high-skilled workers, his administration has cracked down on the temporary visa program used by technology companies to hire tens of thousands each year. The results could roil businesses from Silicon Valley to New Delhi.

Some Republicans in Congress support an increase in the number of H-1B visas, mostly used to hire technology workers. But during his campaign for president, Trump called for an end to those temporary visas, calling them a “cheap labor program” that takes jobs from Americans. In his first address to Congress in 2017, he proposed that the U.S. switch to a legal immigration system designed to bring in skilled workers. Since then, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency has challenged an unusually large number of H-1B applications. These visas have been in demand: In 2017, it took just four days for applicants to exhaust the 85,000 petitions the government allots for H-1Bs each year. Indians receive more H-1Bs than any other nationality. Facebook, Google, Intel and Cisco Systems are among the companies that have lobbied Congress to increase the number of these visas. H-1Bs, issued for up to three years with a possible extension for three more, aren’t the only ways U.S. businesses can hire foreign help. Seasonal agriculture workers come in under the H-2A visa program. Movie stars, distinguished academics and professional athletes can get special U.S. work visas set aside for those with “extraordinary ability.” Extraordinary bank accounts have allowed the rich to receive EB-5 visas if they were willing to invest at least $500,000 in the U.S. and create at least 10 jobs within two years; a lot of this money has gone into real estate developments. Concerns that the U.S. might raise this amount to $1.35 million prompted a flood of applications from wealthy Chinese investors in 2017.