While immigrants in the United States have already experienced a dreadful few days because of the sudden restrictions on the H1B visa and green card status, things are likely getting better.
The US government has introduced some relaxation for the green card holders and the H1b visa applicants by giving them a grace period of 60 days. They have already been served notices for the submission of the application and necessary documents following the covid-19 outbreak in the world.
The H1b visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows the US companies to hire people from foreign countries based on their skills. The same hires are done on the basis of theatrical or technical expertise. The US companies hire tens and thousands of people from India and China with this visa.
A Green Card, on the other hand is a permanent residency card which is issued to all the immigrants in the US as an evidence that they can permanently reside in the country.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) further reported that the 60 days grace period that they are offering with will request the “evidence, the continuation for the evidences, notices of the intent to deny, notices of intent to revoke, notices of intent to rescind, notices of intent to terminate regional investment centers, filing data requirements,” to name a few.
USCIS will consider a response to these above mentioned requests and notices that are received within a time frame of 60 days following which any action will be taken as per the law.
USCIS also reported that they are going to consider the Form I-290B that they receive upto 60 calendar days from the date of its action.
According to the norm, USCIS can only issue a maximum of 65,000 H1b visas to the foreign workers every year. Aside from that, they can give an additional 20,000 H1b visas to the skilled professionals who have pursued their higher education from the States.
Aside from that, US also has a limitation of up to 1,40,000 employment based green cards that they can allows in the country.
According to the statement further issued by USCIS, it has been mentioned that USCIS has been working to adopt several measures to further protect their workforce and community and further minimise the immigration consequences, especially for the ones seeking immigration benefits.
Every single relaxation that has been imposed have come around because of the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the implications that it leaves behind on the lives of people.
US is the worst hit country because of the virus and has reported over 1 million cases with over 64,000 reported deaths in the country.
