On 23 June 2020, the US President announced that they would temporary suspend the H1B visa till 31 Dec 2020. You can read details here:
In this article let’s examine: How does this affect students planning to start their Masters from a US University in 2020 or 2021 ?
When do prospective Master’s students require the H1B visa
On completion of a Masters’ degree, students get 1 year of work permit known as the OPT (Optional Practical Training). Students with a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) degree get an additional 2 years of OPT extension, thus making it effectively a 3 year OPT. A student starts working on the OPT and their employer applies for their H1B visa while they are on the OPT. So most students starting their Masters in 2020 or 2021, will be applying for their H1B sometime in the period of 2022-2026. So as of now, the H1B suspension will NOT affect those planning to pursue their Master’s degrees, even if they plan to start this program in Fall (August) 2020.
The Good news
The US government’s plan to move the H1B allotment to a merit based system is actually good for students with the Master’s degree, as that puts them in a higher priority bracket than those applications filed by Indian and foreign companies for their employees without a Master’s degree. The current system uses a lottery based system, while the new system would use a merit based system.
While the exact parameters of the merit based system are not yet finalized – educational qualification and normalized salary would be major decision making parameters.
Just for your reference: In 2017 the Trump government had come up with general guidelines for a point based systems for deciding the H1B eligibility. You can check details here
Please Note: This link is a 2017 link and is just an indicator of what you may expect in terms of the H1B reforms. This is NOT the final proposal.
While we will have to wait for the US government to officially announces the new H1B allotment criteria, it is certain that those with higher skills and qualifications would certainly be given priority.
In 2005 Jay Rege, along with his wife Jothsna Rege, co-founded Academy One, a career guidance and study abroad counseling venture. Prior to co-founding Academy One, he worked as a software developer with HCL Technologies. He holds a computer engineering degree from Mumbai University and a MBA from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, USA. He has also been a visiting faculty at a few colleges where he teaches topics related to entrepreneurship.