Just a few days before the term expires, the administration of US President Donald Trump has again changed its H-1B visa regime, prioritizing higher wages and skills rather than the common lottery system for selecting candidates who are willing to work in the country.
The new rules, effective 60 days after being published in the federal registry on Jan. 8, will most likely cover H-1B applicants. The next H1B visa submission season is scheduled for April 1.
Under the amended rules, H-1B cap visas would be allocated to those earning the highest salaries in their respective professional sectors and geographic areas of work. The visas would first be granted to individuals sponsored by US companies in Level 4, the highest of the four pay categories, and for highly experienced workers.
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Followed by those at level 3 and so on, until the annual quota of 85,000 is reached. Until now, the selection of H-1B work visas was done by a random lottery system, which did not take into account pay, experience, or other factors for selection.
Indians are the largest number of beneficiaries of H-1B visas in the US. The new rule could make hiring international workers more challenging and would have a significant impact on Indians who want to work in the country.
The government of India said it was in talks with the US to increase the predictability of the visa regime and to minimize the inconvenience for Indian nationals in the US.
The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers for special professions that require theoretical or technical expertise. US tech companies depend on this visa category to hire millions of workers from India and China every year.
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Tech giants oppose the move
The constant changes in the H-1B visa regime have been opposed by leaders of technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter. Although Indian companies have gradually shut down depending on these work permits, many giant tech companies are still looking for personnel from the pool of H-1B workers.
H-1B visas are generally approved for three years, after which time beneficiaries often change employers and continue to work for other US-based companies. In 2018-19, Google, Facebook and Apple hired more than 13,000 highly skilled IT workers with H1B visas, either directly or from existing visa holders who wanted to change jobs to stay on, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
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