After asserting a brand new $100,000 price on H-1B visas, the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed overhauling the visa’s lottery choice course of to prioritize higher-paid and higher-skilled overseas workers.
The proposed coverage modifications may reignite the controversy over the usage of overseas labor by U.S. employers.
The transfer comes as President Donald Trump has taken purpose at H-1B visas, a program used broadly by Massive Tech and outsourcing firms to rent overseas employees, asserting Friday that firms can be required to pay a $100,000 price with new purposes submitted after Sept. 21.
The administration on Tuesday focused H-1B visa allocation, proposing a “weighted choice course of” for when annual demand for the visas tops the 85,000 restrict set by Congress, which it says has occurred yearly for greater than a decade.
The brand new course of would substitute the present lottery system that determines who will get to use for these restricted visa spots in favor of placing extra weight on increased expert and better paid overseas employees, in keeping with a proposed rule set to be printed within the Federal Register on Wednesday.
Beneath the present lottery guidelines, gives to use for an H-1B visa are assigned at random.
The Trump administration’s proposal would assign potential workers to 4 completely different wage bands, with employees within the highest wage class being entered into the choice pool 4 instances and people within the lowest wage class being entered into the choice pool as soon as.
The Division of Homeland Safety acknowledged within the proposal that the weighted system would higher serve the visa program’s authentic intent and “incentivize employers to supply increased wages or increased expert positions to H-1B employees and disincentivize the prevailing widespread use of the H-1B program to fill decrease paid or decrease expert positions.”
It mentioned the proposed choice course of would nonetheless keep alternatives for employers to rent H-1B employees at “all wage ranges.”
‘A robust sign’
The H-1B visa program permits U.S. employers to briefly rent expert overseas employees in “specialty occupations” throughout well being care, tech and finance industries, and different STEM-related fields.
The 2 new proposed insurance policies collectively ship “a powerful sign of the course that the administration desires to go,” mentioned Xiao Wang, CEO of Boundless Immigration, an organization that provides companies to individuals navigating the immigration course of within the U.S.
If adopted, the insurance policies would profit firms in search of to maintain foreigners with specialised abilities who studied at American universities within the U.S., in addition to making certain H-1B visas “disproportionately go to people who find themselves deemed increased expert, represented by increased wages and better wage,” he mentioned.
Trump acknowledged Friday that modifications have been wanted within the visa system, saying it was designed to herald short-term employees with “additive, high-skilled capabilities, but it surely has been intentionally exploited to switch, reasonably than complement, American employees with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
For the final H-1B lottery spherical, which closed its registration in March, about 339,000 individuals utilized. Of these, 120,141 purposes have been chosen for the lottery, in keeping with USCIS information.
The proposal faces a 30-day public remark interval earlier than it’s thought of by the administration for a ultimate rule, a course of that would take months.
If the modifications are adopted, firms in search of to rent lower-wage employees from India and China for computer-related jobs seem more likely to be among the many most affected. For greater than a decade, about 60% of H-1B employees accredited yearly have held computer-related jobs, in keeping with Pew Analysis.
Begin-ups and smaller firms who can not afford to pay their employees within the increased pay classes in comparison with main tech firms would even be impacted, Wang mentioned.
Deedy Das, a accomplice at Menlo Ventures enterprise capital group, mentioned in a social media put up that the newest proposal would damage many tech firms.
“Total, it’s actually dangerous for startups, early workers, helps IT consulting outlets and might be simply gamed,“ Das wrote.
Trump’s announcement of a brand new $100,000 price on H-1B visas touched off a frenzy amongst present visa holders, the businesses that make use of them and nations around the globe as they labored to grasp the edict.
Finally, the White Home clarified that it could be a one-time price and apply solely to new visa candidates.
Trump mentioned firms must pay the price for brand spanking new H-1B visa purposes submitted after Sept. 21. That is a steep rise from present charges, which are normally $2,000 to about $5,000.
Each the price and Tuesday’s proposal are more likely to face challenges in courtroom.
A rising refrain on each the left and the fitting say an over-reliance on the visa by U.S. companies has put U.S.-born employees at a drawback. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has known as the H-1B visa program a “rip-off,” whereas the left-leaning Financial Coverage Institute has claimed that a few of the firms most reliant on H-1B visas, equivalent to Amazon and Fb’s mum or dad, Meta, have additionally had sizable layoffs, although it didn’t cite proof that the usage of the visa and the layoffs are associated.
Within the first half of 2025, Amazon obtained approval for greater than 12,000 H-1B visas, whereas Meta obtained greater than 5,000.
Representatives for each firms didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
