BRAND-NEW DELHI: Natasha Bhat learned in late February that her father-in-law had unexpectedly passed away. Bhat, 35, recently recalled how she grabbed a backpack and hustled her US-born 4-year-old son to the San Francisco airport to capture a midnight flight to India, her home country. She didn’t prepare for being stuck there indefinitely.
Bhat operates at a tech business in Silicon Valley on an
H-1B visa
, and her files were due for renewal. So she threw them in the bag, understanding she ‘d need to get the task taken care of before flying back to the US in a few weeks. She said her mid-March consultation at the US consulate in Kolkata was canceled when it shut down due to Covid-19 issues. Her return house was delayed even more when President
Donald Trump
signed an executive order last week disallowing many individuals on several types of visas, consisting of H-1Bs, from going into the nation till2021
Trump’s executive order is the latest step in his years-long tightening up of
US migration policy
The president has argued considering that taking office the visa programs permit employers to undercut native-born workers on incomes, over the objections of companies that say they require highly experienced employees to fill vital task openi