H1B Visa Based On Skills, Wages From Jan 8: Will Joe Biden Stop These New H1B Rules?

If you are disappointed with the current lottery system process for H-1B visa, this piece of information will definitely enlighten you.

The United States announced that they will modify the selection process for H-1B visas by giving priority to salary and skills, instead of the lottery procedures which are used currently.

Launch Of The Latest Visa Rules

According to the officials, the final rule to be published in the federal register on January 8.

The latest move is aimed towards protecting the economic interests of US workers.

It would also help in ensuring the most highly skilled foreign workers benefit from the temporary employment program.

The H-1B visa is basically a non-immigrant visa. Further, it allows US companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that need expertise in theory or technical domain.

This mainly helps the technology companies which depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from the countries like India and China.

How Will This Help?

The latest changes will affect the H-1B cap selection process positively as it will help in incentivizing employers to offer higher salaries, and/or petition for higher-skilled positions.

It will also help in establishing a more certain path for businesses, it will also help in achieving the personnel needs and help in remaining globally competitive, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The final rule will be effective after 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register. 

The next H-1B visa filing season will be starting on April 1.

Why Is The Need For New Rules?

The USCIS Deputy Director for Policy, Joseph Edlow said, “The H-1B temporary visa program has been exploited and abused by employers primarily seeking to fill entry-level positions and reduce overall business costs,”.

He added, “The current H-1B random selection process makes it difficult for businesses to plan their hiring, fails to leverage the program 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,”.

These new changes will only affect the H-1B registrations (or petitions, if the registration process is suspended) submitted by prospective petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

These rules will also be applicable to those for the advanced degree exemption, submitted on or after the effective date of the final rule.

This move will help in maximizing the H-1B cap allocations so that it will more likely go to the best and brightest workers.

These rules will also help in disincentive abuse of the H-1B program to fill relatively lower-paid, lower-skilled positions, which is a significant problem under the present selection system.