Will Biden Lift Trump’s H1B Visa Ban?

Trump’s H-1B visa suspension prevents international business school students from finding jobs in the United States. As Biden becomes President, we ask: Will the visa ban be lifted?

On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. From day one, Biden embarked on a flurry of executive orders to undo much of Trump’s legislation and undergo a complete change in policy direction.

For business schools, one of the most damaging impacts of the Trump administration was on visas and immigration. From June 2020, Trump suspended distribution of the H-1B work visa, which allows highly-skilled immigrants to work in specialty professions in the US.

Many American schools rely on the H-1B visa to attract top international students with the promise of staying on to work in the US after they graduate. Amid the visa uncertainty, international MBA and master's students who would typically relocate to the US for business school have increasingly looked elsewhere.

In October 2020, the former President added a further tightening of restrictions, stating that H-1B visa holders must meet a certain minimum salary to retain their visa. Trump renewed the H-1B visa suspension on January 1, 2021 for a further three months,...