H-1B visa denial rate spikes under Trump's presidency

NEW DELHI: On June 23, US President Donald Trump put a temporary ban on visas for foreign workers till the end of this year in an attempt to boost employment for millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis amidst Covid-19 pandemic. But President Trump has long been a critic of the H-1B visa scheme, arguing that it has been abused by employers and resulted in lower wages for American workers.
An analysis of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data by National Foundation for American Policy shows that the denial rate for H-1B visas stood at 6 per cent halfway through Obama's second term. But since Trump took charge, it increased to 24 per cent in FY 2018 and 30 per cent in FY 2020.

The recent move by Trump has attracted widespread criticism from tech companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook who rely on foreign talent. Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to twitter to express his disappointment.

In fiscal 2019, tech-giant Google filed 10,577 H-1B visa applications against 9,416 by Amazon and 7,237 by IBM.