US President Donald Trump announced a 60 day pause on people seeking permanent residence status in the US on Tuesday. The Executive Order is likely to be signed on Wednesday and is expected to have exemptions for certain categories, like family green cards. This would not impact people travelling on temporary visas like the H-1B or L1, which are typically used to bring high-skilled workers to the US. Trump added that the order would be reviewed at the end of the 60 day period. Further details were not available, but policy experts said that this might be extended to other visa categories over a period of time.
On Monday night, Trump had tweeted that he would be signing an Executive Order that would temporarily suspend immigration to the US in wake of the Covid19 pandemic in a bid to protect American workers. Last week, US unemployment rose to over 22 million as companies started layoffs to deal with the economic impact of Covid19.
There were some initial concerns whether students completing their optional practical training (OPT) or people who had been selected in this year’s H-1B lottery would be impacted by this decision. Indian national accounted for over 60% of the H-1B visa applications submitted this year, according the US Citizenship and Immigration Services that administers the visa process.
