After $100,000 H-1B visa fee, Donald Trump administration plans to scrap lottery process: How will it work?
Days after announcing the $100,000 annual fee for H-1B applicants, the Trump administration has proposed changes to the visa selection process. The new rule would prioritise higher-paid foreign workers over lower-wage applicants.
The Donald Trump administration is seeking to overhaul the selection process for the H-1B visa system, days after the US President imposed a sweeping $100,000 fee for the visa, which is mostly used by Indian tech workers.
The proposal, released Tuesday, is the latest effort of the Trump administration to change the H-1B visa system fundamentally, in line with the President's push for a crackdown on immigrants and favour American workers.
“The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to amend its regulations governing the process by which US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries for filing of H-1B petitions (or H-1B petitions for any year in which the registration requirement is suspended),” the DHS said in a notification on Tuesday.
H-1B visa: What are the proposed changes?
The DHS listed multiple changes in the H-1B visa selection process. They are:
- The DHS is seeking to overhaul the H-1B visa selection process by introducing a weighted rule that would primarily favour the allocation of H-1B visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign workers. The department said the new process would also help employers secure H-1B visas for workers across all wage levels.
- The current lottery system, which caps the visas at 85,000 per year, will remain in place for now. However, under the new rule, DHS would give greater preference to applications from employers offering higher wages if annual requests exceed the statutory limit of 85,000. The move aims to better protect Americans from unfair wage competition from foreign workers, the department said.
- Their odds of selection would be based on the wage level to which they are assigned. Workers in the highest of the four wage levels would be entered into the selection pool four times, while those in the lowest tier would be entered only once.
- Donald Trump's $100,000 fee on H-1B visa stays. However, applies only to new applicants, not to current H-1B holders.
The Trump administration said on Friday that companies would now pay $100,000 per year for new H-1B visa applicants. Tech giants, including Amazon and Meta, alarmed by the news, reportedly advised their H-1B employees to remain in the US and avoid international travel. It was later clarified that the new fee applies only to new applicants and not to current H-1B holders.