Ban on Immigration Extended!
The bombshell has finally been dropped! And it constitutes very bad news for DV 2020 hopefuls.
Against all hopes, the President of the United States has extended the Ban on Immigration which he instituted two months ago. The Ban, officially known as “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak” was issued for a period of 60 days, on April 22,2020, “to protect already disadvantaged and unemployed Americans from the threat of competition for scarce jobs from new lawful permanent residents.”
And so, at the end of that duration, and on the grounds that the threat of competition for scarce jobs posed by prospective lawful permanent residents still remains in place, the President has extended the ban for additional 6 months plus, thereby dashing the hopes of DV 2020 applicants who are yet to process their cases.
Although exemptions are possible as was the case with the original version of the ban, the extension now includes several non immigrant visa categories, in addition to the immigrant visas initially targeted.
The extension comes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on tomorrow, June 24, 2020, and will remain until December 31, 2020, meaning that the DV-2021 Program, which released its results a couple of weeks ago, will also be impacted. To what extent remains a mystery.
