STEM Visa Expansion Efforts Detailed by Biden Officials

An envelope with the logo of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
(Evgenia Parajanian / Getty Images / iStockphoto)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology held a webinar
Morgan Dwyer, chief strategy officer in the CHIPS Program Office, noted that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has set the goal
In addition to highlighting efforts underway
Simon Nakajima, assistant director for STEM immigration at OSTP, highlighted how the White House has created a webpage
Doug Rand, a senior advisor at USCIS, explained that securing a national interest waiver for an EB-2 visa means that workers do not have to “undergo the typical Department of Labor market test – they can sponsor themselves, and they can save some time on their application.” Rand said that working in the semiconductor industry is considered “an especially positive factor” in waiver determinations, and that applicants with expertise relevant to the White House’s list of critical and emerging technologies
Rand further said that USCIS has seen a “pretty significant uptick” in the number of people pursuing the O-1A visa pathway and that the approval rate has stayed about the same. “It’s a high approval rate, it’s north of 90%. That’s not because we’re deliberately fixing the approval rate at a given level. I just want to emphasize that we’re applying the same standards. But there are a lot of people out there who might have been intimidated at first but are starting to apply for this pathway,” he said.
Moving forward, Nakajima noted more actions are planned pursuant to Biden’s AI order. For instance, the Department of Labor has issued a request for input
Webinar participants also previewed some of the Biden administration’s plans to update the H-1B non-immigrant skilled visa program. Morgan O’Brien, industry liaison at the State Department, noted that the department is launching a small pilot program this month allowing current H-1B visa holders to renew their visa without having to leave the country.
“This is hopefully going to knock out tens if not hundreds of thousands of visa appointments that we don’t have to do overseas to open up space for those that we do by law. And ideally, this would then knock down some of those wait times that are still hanging out there and nagging not just you, but certainly us,” O’Brien said.
Notably, the AI order directs the department to also consider permitting domestic renewals for STEM students on F-1 visas and visiting scholars on J-1 visas.