Another Shocker: OPT, H1B Visa Crackdown On The Way?
The United States government has already initiated the deportation drive where military aircrafts are being used to send immigrants back to their origin countries.
By: Tupaki Desk | 5 Feb 2025 5:42 AM
The Trump administration has been going excessively hard against the immigration and visa policies. The United States government has already initiated the deportation drive where military aircrafts are being used to send immigrants back to their origin countries.
On top of that, the government is now on the verge of cracking down the OPT and H1B Visa issuance policies. The new judicial reforms that have been suggested for the OPT and H1B visa formulation is going to make for a sorry reading for the Indian community.
According to the suggested judicial reform, Visas for workers specialty occupations (H-1B) should be limited to a period of two years with a possible extension to four years, and there should be no automatic extension based on a green card petition. The total number should be limited to 75,000 or less, including the non-profit and research sector, which is currently unlimited.
If the category is oversubscribed, then the visas should be awarded to the highest-paying employers, as a proxy for the highest skilled workers. Federal government agencies should be permitted to seek approval for visa workers only in very limited circumstances.
Second, the Optional Practical Training (OPT) and Curricular Practical Training (CPT) programs, which were never authorized by Congress, and which have spawned an industry of diploma mills and fake schools give cover for bogus training programs and illegal employment, should be eliminated, or much, much more closely regulated.
According to the official document “Currently OPT and CPT are the largest guest worker programs we have, with an estimated 540,000 former students employed here, without accountability, oversight, labor condition safeguards. In addition, Congress must impose stricter standards for credentialing schools before they are allowed to issue I-20 forms to visa applicants. Schools with high rates of overstays should lose their eligibility to issue I-20s.”
If the H1B and OPT crackdown begins, the Indian community in the United States could have a tough time ahead.