Impacted by Trump’s travel ban? Now, you can reapply for H-1B visa

Updated : April 05, 2021 01:23 PM IST

The Joe Biden administration has asked H-1B applicants impacted by last year’s travel ban to submit a fresh application

From April 1, selected applicants can file their petitions for an H-1B visa, which, if accepted, will allow them to work in the US from October 1

The Joe Biden administration has asked all those H-1B applicants who had been impacted due to the travel ban to reapply for a visa by submitting a fresh application. The previous Donald Trump government had banned certain non-immigrant visa holders, including many people from India working in tech companies, from entering the United States.

From April 1, selected applicants can file their petitions for an H-1B visa, which, if accepted, will allow them to work in the US from October 1.

On March 31, last year’s ban on the entry of visa holders expired.

On Friday (April 2), the US Department of State said that H-1B applicants could now reapply for a visa. This order will help a huge number of Indian professionals, as around 70 percent of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued every year are used by them.

In June 2020, then US President Trump had issued a ban on the entry of certain non-immigrant visa holders, including H-1B and L-1 visas, which are most commonly used by technology companies to send their high-skill employees to the US.

Now, a fresh travel advisory by the Biden administration said that the petitions of the visa applicants, who have not yet been interviewed or scheduled for an interview, would be prioritized and processed in accordance with the existing phased resumption of visa services guidance. The resumption, however, will depend on the concerned embassies and consulates, and whether they have resumed visa processing services.

In India, the consulate is currently processing cases that had been cancelled or rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Trump administration had announced the travel ban in the wake of record unemployment levels in the US because of the pandemic. The ban had impacted several Indians who were selected in the H-1B visa lottery but were still in India because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Several large companies and industry associations had questioned this move as unemployment levels in technology-related jobs hadn’t changed much as compared to before. In August, H-1B and L-1 visa holders meeting certain criteria were exempted from this ban.

Published : April 05, 2021 01:04 PM IST

Impacted by Trump’s travel ban? Now, you can reapply for H-1B visa

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