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Worker visas in doubt as Trump immigration crackdown widens

In this Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, photo, Leo Wang packs a suitcase at his home in San Jose, Calif. Wang has found himself trapped in an obstacle course regarding H-1B work visas for foreigners. His visa denied and his days in the United States numbered, Wang is looking for work outside the country. “I still believe in the American dream,” he says. “It’s just that I personally have to pursue it somewhere else.” (AP Photo/Ben Margot) In this Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, photo, Leo Wang packs a suitcase at his home in San Jose, Calif. Wang has found himself trapped in an obstacle course regarding H-1B work visas for foreigners. His visa denied and his days in the United States numbered, Wang is looking for work outside the country. “I still believe in the American dream,” he says. “It’s just that I personally have to pursue it somewhere else.” (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Associated Press February 25, 2019 8 min read

FILE – In this April 18, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump holds up the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order which he signed during a visit to the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc. in Kenosha, Wis. Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to Trump’s promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the best and brightest. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to President Donald Trump’s promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the most talented foreigners.

Getting what’s known as an H-1B visa has never been a sure thing – the number issued annually is capped at 85,000 and applicants need to enter a lottery to even be considered. But some immigration attorneys, as well as those who hire such workers, say they’ve seen unprecedented disruptions in the approval process since Trump took office in 2017.

“You see all these arguments that we want the best and the brightest coming here,” said John Goslow, an immigration attorney in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Yet we’re seeing a full-frontal assault on just all aspects of immigration.”

For American businesses, there is a bottom-line impact.

Link Wilson, an architect who co-founded a firm in Bloomington, Minnesota, said finding enough qualified workers within the U.S. has been a problem for years. That’s due to a shortage of architects, but also because his firm needs people with experience developing senior housing. He said employers who turn to international applicants do so as a last resort, putting up with legal fees and ever-expanding visa approval times because they have no other choice.