US Raid on Hyundai Plant Leaves Korean Companies Reeling

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11. From a Seoul based journalist:

“Something that's not being reported much re: ICE crackdown at Hyundai-LG Georgia battery factory: Korean companies investing billions cannot get proper visas, are then criminalised for bringing skilled workers to fill gaps American labour…

One of the core issues is that S. Korea has no country-reserved work visa. By contrast, Australia for instance gets E-3 (10,500/year) and Singapore/Chile get H-1B1 (5,400/1,400). Korea has neither, despite FTA status and massive investment commitments.

The Partner with Korea Act, which would in theory allow specialty visas, has been repeatedly introduced in Congress, but never passed. This is seen as a must to facilitate even more Korean investment in batteries, semiconductors, and other industries.

Then there's the cap on the highly competitive H-1B of 85,000 total (65k regular + 20k US master's). No per-country quotas. Processing takes months. Many construction trades don't qualify as "specialty occupations" requiring degrees.”

Link to tweet

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