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12th January 2017
04:32pm GMT
Irish holders and users of the H-1B visa, allowing them to work legally in America, may be at risk of having their visas canceled as the program may be discontinued by the Trump administration.
To give you a ballpark figure, close to 600 Irish obtained H-1B visas in 2015.
The visa allows the holder to work in the US as a highly skilled employee for up to three years, with an expansion to six years usually available thereafter.
The Washington Post had this to say about the possible discontinuation:
“President-elect Donald Trump and his choice for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), have tabbed the program for a major overhaul, and might even scrap it altogether. In the House, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is on the same wavelength.”
The President-elect has mentioned that he thinks H-1Bs are a “cheap labour program” that is subject to “widespread, rampant” abuse.
The visas in question bring up to 100,000 “highly skilled” contract workers, mostly in tech, to the US every year. There may be significant blow back from Silicon Valley in particular, where the need for skilled tech workers has never been greater.
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