Visa Applicants Being Asked if Americans Can Do Their Jobs

An unexpected question has been popping up for some temporary employment visa applicants during their interviews at U.S. consulates: “Why can’t an American do this job?”

“How do you even answer that question?” David Strashnoy of Stone Grzegorek Gonzalez in Los Angeles asked.

“It’s not a bad question” in itself, he told Bloomberg Law. But applicants can’t answer it, and consular officers aren’t equipped to approve or deny visas based on the response, he said.

Whether a company can’t find qualified U.S. applicants and truly needs to hire a foreign worker is a “complex question that involves very high-level economics,” ...