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Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at immigration law firm Immigration.com, said it could take as much as a year for the visa programme to get scrapped. "The process is currently at the second last stage. Once it is approved here, it will be posted in the federal register and people will have 30 or 60 days to post comments, following which the regulation will be made final," said Khanna. The administration is obligated to comment before publishing and implementing the final rule, a process that could take several months, he added.

“The term speciality occupation is defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act, so a definition change cannot be brought about by mere agency regulation,” Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com told TOI. 

“Unfortunately, the definitions of employment and employer-employee relationship are not provided in the statute. That definition can be tinkered with. But to what degree it can be redefined remains to be seen,” he adds. 

Added to the backlog woes is the spike in denials of naturalization applications "The grounds for denial are unpredictable, they could even relate to errors made when obtaining H-1B visas or green cards. This adds to the uncertainty," said Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com.  " An entrepreneur had sponsored a green card for an employee without mentioning that he was a distant relative. He thought it was immaterial as the relationship was so distant. Today, this entrepreneur is unable to become a US citizen," Khanna said. 

“The law permits H-1B visa holders to be non-productive as long as they are paid. It is important to note that employers cannot bench employees without payment of their full salaries,” explains Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com 

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“An out-of-status scenario, for the H-1B visa holder and his or her dependents (such as spouse and children) would mean a three-to-ten-year bar from re-entering the country. The mechanism to redress an H-1B denial (including that of a transfer) is also highly inefficient,” said Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com.

For employees who are coming from outside the United States, even though the premium processing will begin in June, it offers a great deal of comfort in knowing where a case stands. If the application is denied, which is quite common these days, there will be enough time to appeal or litigate it before the October 1 start date,” Rajiv S Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com told TOI.

Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com told TOI: “Anecdotally, from our own clients, we see difficulty in hiring qualified people in STEM professions. Several of our clients have opened offices in Canada, simply because US immigration policies are implemented by the current administration inconsistently, creating maximal difficulty, often beyond the boundaries of the permissible laws.” “We can see no rationale for any change in policy making it more difficult for US trained students to remain in the USA and for US businesses to hire and retain qualified people,” he adds.