US modifies H-1B visa selection process

The move is aimed to protect the economic interests of US workers and better ensure the most highly skilled foreign workers benefit from the temporary employment programme

Washington: The outgoing Trump administration on Friday modified the selection process for H-1B visa, giving priority to salary and skills instead of the current lottery procedures. The notification was published in the Federal Register. It would come into force in 60 days.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The next H-1B visa filing season is slated to start on April 1.

The notification, which comes with less than two weeks left in President Donald Trump's tenure, is the latest effort to bar the entry of immigrants to the US. However, it is too early to say how the modification would impact Indian companies as there is a possibility of the incoming Biden administration reviewing the notification.

There was no reaction from any companies or business bodies on the notification so far. Restricting immigration has been a focus of the Trump administration since its first days when it issued the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, and it has continued into Trump's final year in office as the White House uses the coronavirus pandemic as cover.

Last week, Trump extended the freeze on H-1B visas along with other types of work visas and green cards until March 31. Democratic leader Joe Biden, who will be sworn in as President on January 20, has promised to lift the suspension on H-1B visas, saying Trump's immigration policies are cruel.

Officials on Thursday said the move is aimed to protect the economic interests of US workers and better ensure the most highly skilled foreign workers benefit from the temporary employment programme. Modifying the H-1B cap selection process will incentivise employers to offer higher salaries, and/or petition for higher-skilled positions, and establish a more certain path for businesses to achieve personnel needs and remain globally competitive, said US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"The H-1B temporary visa programme has been exploited and abused by employers primarily seeking to fill entry-level positions and reduce overall business costs," said USCIS Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow. "The current H-1B random selection process makes it difficult for businesses to plan their hiring, fails to leverage the programme to compete for the best and brightest international workforce, and has predominantly resulted in the annual influx of foreign labor placed in low-wage positions at the expense of US workers," he said.

This effort will only affect H-1B registrations (or petitions, if the registration process is suspended) submitted by prospective petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. It will be implemented for both the H-1B regular cap and the H-1B advanced degree exemption, but it will not change the order of selection between the two as established by the H-1B registration final rule, USCIS said.