By: Fatima Hasan
Almost 9 months to the day when I arrived back in India after a little over two years of my study in the USA, I came home very reluctantly, to be precise, not knowing what is next for me. My relatives and friends questioned my decision to come back from the world’s biggest economy wherein journalists of all sorts are paid in dollars and gain good fame.
My reasons being different, I remained unbothered. Days passed by after January 3 and my jet lag finally subsided till the day when Donald Trump took oath as President of the USA for the second time. It is the developments that followed that turned my initial hesitation into a sigh of relief.
I realized that the USA is a very good place for a short visit with proper intervals and for professionals who get hired by multinationals there. As soon as President Trump took office, he kick-started the implementation of his campaign promises. The first shocker came when a U.S military plane carrying 104 deported immigrants, handcuffed and shackled, landed in India’s Punjab on February 5 followed by two other flights taking the numbers to over 300. Many of these immigrants were well settled in the USA and were sent back abruptly without any reason. What will they do now?
The latest developments relate to H1B visa fees and post-study provision of optional practical training [OPT] given to international students in the USA. These twin issues do not affect me seriously but they make me reckon on the future prospects of my international friends and my cousins. I think of what more could happen in the next three years. How many Indian students are there in the USA?
Let alone my few kith and kin, what about the hundreds and thousands of students who come to the USA in the hope of a bright future? Not just their many years go waste but also the huge sums of money that they have put in the process to come to the USA for study and jobs.
Firstly, for any student coming to the USA, it is a prolonged process to acquire a study visa. Securing a work visa and permanent status is another lengthy procedure. Also every step involves spending a lot of money, thanks to the evolving USA immigration policies.
Usually, a F1 student enters OPT period wherein they can work for 12 months to gain practical knowledge in their field. If a student has a degree in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field, then they can apply for 24 months OPT extension, making the post-study practical training stay up to three years. During the OPT phase, the employer can apply for a H1 B visa through the lottery system.
The H1B visa can be granted for three years at first and can be extended for another three years, marking it to total six years. Here comes the twist. Recently, the Trump administration signed an executive action, hiking the H1B visa application fee from $10,000 to $100,000. Trump dismisses the hiccups by saying “We need great workers and this pretty much ensures that that’s what’s going to happen.” However, obtaining H1B visa becomes difficult to near-impossible for many students.
This controversial move by Trump is meant for the employers who would reconsider hiring an international worker vis-a-vis a skilled domestic worker. But precisely, it is also a hurdle in the way of obtaining green card and ultimately citizenship for foreign students who have to endure long wait of years. The students who take loans for their study abroad get trapped in the process and their loans just keep piling up. Note that the part-time work by foreign students beyond a certain limit is considered illegal and it’s always on radar.
Furthermore, the employers would eliminate the foreign OPT candidates as they might not want to employ them for a short time. The new proposal states that the lottery would be weighted to heavily favour higher-income workers, which the administration says would prevent the replacement of American workers with cheaper foreign labour.
Personally, when I look at the amount I have put in and the wait I endured for USA study, I wish I would have gone to Europe, instead, which has easy laws and lower costs of study. It is not just the H1B process, but the USA’s different visa category interview slots have been on and off in a freeze mode since 2020. For instance, I had to defer my admission twice for the interview slot date before actually joining my University in the Fall quarter in 2022. Nonetheless, the people with American dreams will find their way but at a price. For highly skilled workers, the employers may want to pay nth amount. Now that the new proclamation is still not in effect and its legality can be challenged in the USA courts, let’s just keep our fingers crossed and stay calm and composed with plan B in hand.
