Temporary employment immigration ban extended through 2020

Successfully getting a green card is a fairly long process. It is common for people to spend months waiting to hear back about their applications. This can be especially frustrating for immigrants who have secured a job in Louisiana and hope to start working soon. An extension on a temporary employment immigration ban will extend this wait even more.

Although the 60-day ban for green cards issued in other countries was set to expire in late June 2020, it was recently extended until the end of the year. Government officials also expanded the ban to include a number of different temporary work visas, such as the H-1B. This type of visa is heavily favored by tech companies that recruit the most qualified candidates from all over the world.

The H-2B, J-1 and L-1 visas are also temporarily banned until 2021. This will affect seasonal non-agricultural workers, exchange students and managers for multinational corporations. Food-processing workers will be exempt from the H-2B visa ban, and the green card ban does not apply to health care workers. But even with these exceptions, the ban is expected to leave about 525,000 jobs vacant.

The path to employment immigration is not always straightforward. People face all kinds of hurdles when trying to fill much-needed positions in Louisiana, including the current temporary ban for many of those jobs. However, this waiting period can still be put to good use, as it gives individuals the time to seek guidance for what the future of immigration may hold.