I would not just halt but cancel. Walk away. There are much more welcoming, not corrupt places in the world.
TLDR: Korea uses short visas for their workers, rotating them out to keep them from expiring, die to the rapid build time of their projects.
USA alleges they overstayed their welcome.
Korean companies are now recalling their workers.
That’s incorrect, I’m pretty sure. It’s not that they’re overstating, it’s that they’re the wrong visas. See my reply below for more details.
Well we’re they here illegally or not?
If they were here illegally, did executives get any charges?
I looked this up since it’s not fully explained in the article. They entered legally on B-1 visas, but B-1 visas are for things like business meetings, not “actual” work.
They should be entering on H-1B or L-1 visas, which are for temporary (1 or 3 year) technical workers who can’t be sourced locally. But the US caps these visas, and they can’t get enough.
So, the US lobbied to get investment from these companies/South Korea in the US, but then didn’t give them enough visas to get the factories built. So now, they’re pulling all South Korean employees in the country who are on B-1 visas, stalling all capital investment in the factories the US lobbied for.
This particular case is intended, because it was lobbied for by Democrats, and they’re the other team, so anything they’ve done should be set on fire. (In this case, EVs.) But this will (or course) have chilling effects on all investment in the US going forward and will lead to project cancellations, delays, and cost overruns.
That’s my read.
