Tag: visas

This working group should have been established long ago to address Korean visa concerns instead of trying to game the system which led to detainment of hundreds of Koreans earlier this month:

South Korea and the United States will launch a working group this week to improve the visa system for Korean workers after the detention and release of more than 300 South Koreans in a recent U.S. immigration raid, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

The two nations will hold the inaugural meeting of the working group in Washington on Tuesday (local time), the sources said, weeks after the Georgia raid on South Korean workers.

In early September, more than 300 South Korean workers at a factory construction site in Georgia were detained for a week over unclear violations of visa rules. They were released after diplomatic negotiations.

Seoul’s foreign ministry and the U.S. State Department will lead the working group, the sources said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Commerce Department are also believed to be taking part in the group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If Korean tech companies wants to bring their workers into American to work it is going to cost a whole lot more:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation to impose a yearly fee of US$100,000 for an H-1B nonimmigrant visa application for a highly skilled foreign worker, as his administration seeks to ensure tech firms help train Americans rather than bringing in foreign workers.

The fee is expected to put a burden on Korean companies that need to bring their skilled workers into the United States on a stable visa program to set up and run factories in the U.S. to proceed with their investment projects.

The current fee for the H-1B visa is $1,000. The visa is meant for skilled professionals, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, with its program subject to an annual worldwide cap of 85,000 visas.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick elaborated on the fee for an H-1B visa — a three-year visa with one renewal that could last a total of six years — as he called for tech companies to train Americans and stop bringing in foreign workers to take American jobs.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the new fee is going to make foreign companies think long and hard about whether or not it is affordable to bring in foreign workers on a H1B visa or train an American to do the job.

Here is some good news for Korean students looking to study in the U.S.:

The United States government rescinded its controversial decision to revoke foreign student visas whose courses move online due to coronavirus, a federal judge said Tuesday.

The universities of Harvard and MIT, with the support of a number of other institutions, had taken legal action against the move that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on July 6.

“The government has agreed to rescind” the decision as well as any implementation of the directive, Judge Allison Burroughs said in a brief hearing.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.