By GARRETT SAGER
Hays Post

In the first week of his presidency, President Donald Trump signed many executive orders, one of which was a 90-day temporary travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.

Since then, Homeland Security has suspended the implementation of the travel ban after a ruling by a federal judge, but it has still forced Fort Hays State University to look at and make some changes to how they handle the visas and the green cards of its employees.

“In light of some of that and the current legislation that is pending and stuff federally, we have pseudo-adjusted our timelines for visas and green cards,” said Kerry Wasinger, FHSU general counsel.

In the past, when FHSU would first hire a faculty member needing a visa, then they would go through the application process for a H1-B, which is a type of visa that lasts for three years, according to Wasinger. Following the three years, FHSU would apply for an extension for another three years.

“The reason for that is that they would be in the sixth year of their tenure process,” Wasinger said. “After that, we determined if we wanted to sponsor a green card, which is their permanent residence card.”

Due to the changes, FHSU will still have its employees needing a visa go through the H1-B application for the three years and will still extend for the following three years, but now will not wait as long into the second three years to decide to sponsor a green card.

“At this point in time, it’s taking way too long, and we are going to end up losing faculty,” Wasinger said.

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In the last two months, Wasinger has found the approval process is taking longer than usual, which is another reason the university changed its process.

“We don’t want to be a month before the end of the semester and, all of a sudden, someone does not have work authorization,” she said.

FHSU does not have any faculty on visas from the seven countries on the temporary ban list so do not have any faculty fully affected. But it does have three faculty members with green cards from the countries on the banned list.

“The green card holders are pseudo-affected,” Wasinger said.

The faculty with green cards are only affected in such as sense that they cannot visit their home country, but are not on any deportation lists, according to Wasinger.

“They are affected, but not to the same degree as the visa holders,” she said.

FHSU also has no students with visas from the seven countries on the list.