President Donald Trump has criticized the H-1B skilled-worker visa program as a source of “cheap labor,” and the White House is considering a draft executive order calling for it to be re-examined to protect U.S. workers’ jobs.
That’s bad news for technology firms like Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc., which depend on H-1B visas to recruit top foreign talent. It also threatens Indian outsourcing firms that send thousands of workers to the U.S. every year.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said last week it plans to temporarily suspend fast-track processing for the visas, which will slow down the hiring of foreign workers.
The WSJ’s South Asia Deputy Bureau Chief Eric Bellman and reporter Newley Purnell were live on Facebook discussing the potential new restrictions and taking questions.
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