Re:DHS weighs major change to H-1B foreign tech worker visa ...
by barrkel on Sunday December 31, 2017 @02:17PM
(#16042180)
I understand that H1B is a non-immigrant visa
While it's described that way, I don't think the statement accurately conveys the right kind of meaning. US immigration law uses intent as a principle: if you're in the US on a non-immigrant visa and you're suspected of having intent to immigrate, then that's grounds for cancelling the visa. That makes sense for tourist visas.
But H-1B visas (along with L-, V- etc.) are explicitly dual-intent visas, so intent to immigrate doesn't put them at risk. So calling them non-immigrant visas is potentially misleading because they don't carry the same intent risk. They're a kind of halfway house.
While it's described that way, I don't think the statement accurately conveys the right kind of meaning. US immigration law uses intent as a principle: if you're in the US on a non-immigrant visa and you're suspected of having intent to immigrate, then that's grounds for cancelling the visa. That makes sense for tourist visas.
But H-1B visas (along with L-, V- etc.) are explicitly dual-intent visas, so intent to immigrate doesn't put them at risk. So calling them non-immigrant visas is potentially misleading because they don't carry the same intent risk. They're a kind of halfway house.