Post by Katie Kim. Colgate Class of 2022.

Source: Hackman, M. (2021, March 31). Biden Administration to Allow Work-Visa Ban to Expire. The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company.

The H-1B visa ban has finally expired, nearly 10 months after the suspension of the US work visa was originally imposed by former President Trump. The H-1B visa is allocated to high-skilled immigrants, including business master’s and MBA graduates, to work in specialty professions in the US. Annually, the US offers 85,000 H-1B visas, and US employers must justify the exclusive need for this foreigner worker and prove that the task cannot be accomplished by a local citizen who may either be unavailable or not qualified. Trump had imposed this policy last March, advertising that it was necessary to protect jobs for American workers during the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic economy. He further extended and renewed the ban in December which lasted until the end of March. This article mentions that many industries such as tech will benefit from Biden’s decision to let the ban expire because they weren’t able to find American workers who could fill specific needs. Theoretically, if you look at the Roy model in this context, there will be an increase in positive selection because there will be more of an inflow of high skilled workers versus when there was a ban on them. Positive selection is when immigration is more favorable for higher skilled workers. However, even with the ban lifted, many immigration experts state that it will still be difficult for many of the blocked workers to come to the US because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.