Give H1-B visa only to skilled, highest paid foreigners, says Trump admin

The Trump administration on Friday proposed major changes to the H1-B application process with the aim of awarding the visa to the most skilled and highest paid foreign workers.
Under a new proposed merit-based rule, a notice for which was issued Friday, companies employing foreign workers on the H1-B visa under the Congressional mandated annual caps -- would have to electronically register with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) during a designated registration period.
The H1-B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.
The USCIS would also reverse the order allowing it to select H1-B petitions under the H1-B cap and the advanced degree exemption.
This is likely to increase the number of foreign workers with a master's or higher degree from a US institution of higher education to be selected for an H1-B cap number. As such the proposed rule will introducing a more meritorious selection of beneficiaries, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.
The DHS said public comments on the proposed rule can be submitted from December 3 to January 2.
"Currently, in years when the H1-B cap and the advanced degree exemption are both reached within the first five days that H1-B cap petitions may be filed, the advanced degree exemption is selected prior to the H1-B cap.
"The proposed rule would reverse the selection order and count all registrations or petitions towards the number projected as needed to reach the H1-B cap first," the DHS said.
Once a sufficient number of registrations or petitions have been selected for the H1-B cap, the USCIS would then select registrations or petitions towards the advanced degree exemption.
This proposed change would increase the chances that beneficiaries with a master's or higher degree from a US institution of higher education would be selected under the H1-B cap and that H1-B visas would be awarded to the most-skilled and highest-paid beneficiaries, it said.
The proposed process would result in an estimated increase of up to 16 per cent (or 5,340 workers) in the number of selected H1-B beneficiaries with a master's degree or higher from a US institution of higher education, the DHS said.
The USCIS said it expects that shifting to electronic registration would reduce overall costs for petitioners and create a more efficient and cost-effective H1-B cap petition process for the agency.
The proposed rule would help alleviate massive administrative burdens on USCIS since the agency would no longer need to physically receive and handle hundreds of thousands of H1-B petitions and supporting documentation before conducting the cap selection process, it said.
This would help reduce wait times for cap selection notifications. The proposed rule also limits the filing of H1-B cap-subject petitions to the beneficiary named on the original selected registration, which would protect the integrity of this registration system, USCIS said.

Law introduced in US Congress to protect work authorisation of H-1B spouses

A legislation seeking to prohibit the Trump administration from revoking the work authorisation of spouses of H1-B visa holders, which include Indians, has been introduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers who said that eliminating this benefit would force many foreign workers to use their talents to compete against American businesses.
H-4 visas are issued to the spouses of H-1B foreign workers. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa through which many Indians workers are employed in US companies. It allows the US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. It is the most sought-after visa among Indian IT professionals.

H-4 visas are issued only to very close or immediate family members of the H-1B visa holders.
The move by lawmakers Anna G Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren to introduce the H-4 Employment Protection Act, comes amidst determination by the Trump administration to revoke an Obama-era rule that extends work authorisation to the spouses of H-1B visa holders.
Since the rule was implemented, over 100,000 workers, mainly women, that too from India have received employment authorisation, improving the US' competitiveness and lessening the economic burden on thousands of H-1B workers and their families, the two lawmakers said after introducing the bill in the House.
The H-4 Employment Protection Act prohibits the Trump administration from revoking this important rule, which it is expected to do by the end of the year, they said.
"Protecting work authorization for these H-4 visa holders is a matter of both economic fairness and family unity," Eshoo said.
"Eliminating this benefit would create a painful choice for many immigrants to either split up their families or return to their home countries and use their talents to compete against American businesses," Eshoo said.
"These are American citizens-in-waiting, stuck in line for their number to come up," Congressman Lofgren said.
"Prohibiting H-1B dependent spouses from working is of no benefit to our country, and if allowed to move forward, many of these families that can contribute so much to our workforce will simply move to countries with a more sensible approach to immigration. This much needed bill will block the Trump administration from needlessly harming our economy and the lives of skilled immigrant families," Lofgren said.