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With nearly 400,000 jobs open across the sector, the manufacturing industry in the U.S. needs ongoing access to a robust pipeline of skilled workers—but changes proposed to the F-1 student visa by the Department of Homeland Security threaten to reduce the talent in that pipeline, the NAM said recently.

What’s going on: “The F-1 visa … through its Curricular Practical Training (“CPT”) and Optional Practical Training (“OPT”) and STEM OPT options is a major source of high-skilled talent for the manufacturing industry in the U.S.,” the NAM told DHS in response to the agency’s draft reforms to the visa program.

• “[T]he proposed rule would impose changes that risk diminishing the appeal of an American education, making it harder for students to transition into careers that strengthen U.S. manufacturing. This would have a negative impact on the growth and international competitiveness of manufacturing in the United States, which is at odds with President Trump’s objective to bolster the domestic industry.”

What’s at stake: The primary change under consideration “is the switch of F-1 student visas from a duration of status (“D/S”) that remains in effect for as long as the student is enrolled in an academic program to a fixed time period that corresponds to the program’s length but cannot exceed four years.”

• “This would significantly diminish the attractiveness of U.S. universities for prospective international students, because it is at odds with the length of time that many if not most students take … to actually earn their degrees.”
• That change would also make it harder for international students to secure OPT or STEM OPT extensions, in turn inhibiting their “transition into the U.S. manufacturing workforce.”

Why it matters: “These proposed changes … would weaken manufacturers’ access to a plentiful pool of elite global talent upon which we depend to fulfill President Trump’s vision for a manufacturing renaissance in America,” the NAM concluded.