Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk:In a major relief to the working immigrants in the United States, President Donald Trump said that his administration is planning some major changes in the foreign worker visa program to include a more direct path to citizenship. The announcement comes in the backdrop of Trump administration’s conflict with Democrats in the Congress over funding for his border wall to restrict illegal immigrants from entering the US.
Speaking about the same, Trump took to Twitter and announced that changes in H1-B visa norms are coming soon. “H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” Trump tweeted on Friday.
“We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the US,” Trump added. As per current norms, the H1-B visa program allows US companies to hire foreign workers in some skilled occupations. In 2018, Trump had said that his administration plans to overhaul the program. However, the US President didn’t offer specifics on Friday.
The announcement made by the US President comes after a partial government shutdown in the US that has entered its fourth week amid an impasse over Trump’s over allotting a fund of 5.6 billion dollars for the construction of his proposed wall along the US-Mexico border. This proposal is Trump administration’s 2016 election campaign promise.
During his election campaign and even after taking over the White House, Trump has repeatedly said that Mexico would pay for the wall but backtracked from that position earlier this week and said that the government would be tapping emergency disaster funds instead.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the United States in 2018 hit the limit on the number of H-1Bs it could issue, 65,000, by the first week of April. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
