U.S. court blocks two H-1B regulations proposed by Trump administration.

A U.S. District Judge struck down Trump administration’s H-1B Visa proposal to suspending issuing visas to highly skilled foreign workers.

A U.S. District Judge struck down Trump administration’s H-1B Visa proposal to suspending issuing visas to highly skilled foreign workers.President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend the issuance of certain temporary work visas aimed at protecting local workers in July this year. Trump signed to order to contain unemployment rates as they nearly quadrupled with the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in March, rendering millions of Americans jobless. Between February and April of 2020, more than 20 million U.S. workers lost their jobs in key industries. Trump issued a presidential proclamation suspending H1 B visas and L1 visas in light of increasing unemployment rates.

The order also added to limit legal immigration, tightening restrictions on H-1B high-skilled foreign worker visas that were issued which were expected to affect H-1B visas, H-1B1 and E-3 visas — all frequently used by the technology industry to temporarily employ foreign workers with advanced degrees.

The changes applying to the H-1B visa program announced in October included imposing salary requirements on companies employing skilled overseas workers, and limits on speciality occupations. Department of Homeland Security officials deemed it a priority because of coronavirus-related job losses and estimated as many as one-third of those who have applied for H-1B's in recent years would be denied under the new rules.

However, On Dec. 1, 2020, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of Northern District of California blocked the Trump administration's proposal to limit legal immigration and new restrictions on H-1B high-skilled foreign worker visas. White said the government didn't follow transparency procedures and its contention that the changes were an emergency response to pandemic job losses didn't hold because the Trump administration had been talking about the idea for some time.