INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Washington: The Trump administration has proposed to scrap the computerised lottery system to grant H-1B work visas to foreign technology
professionals and replace it with a wage-level-based selection process, a move that is expected to counter the downward pressure on the
wages of US workers.A notification on the new system is being published in the Federal Register on Thursday
Stakeholders have 30 days to respond to the notification, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday, less than a week
expected to help counter the downward pressure on the wages of American workers that is created by an annual influx of relatively
lower-paid, new cap-subject H-1B workers.The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows
US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.If finalised as proposed,
US Citizenship and Immigration Services would first select registrations (or petitions, if the registration process is suspended) generally
based on the highest Occupational Employment Statistics prevailing wage level that the offered wage equals or exceeds for the relevant
balances the interests of petitioners, H-1B workers, and United States workers,? the DHS said.?With this proposed rule, the Trump
administration is continuing to deliver on its promise to protect the American worker while strengthening the economy
The H-1B programme is often exploited and abused by United States employers, and their United States clients, primarily seeking to hire
foreign workers and pay lower wages,? said Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli.US President Donald Trump, keen to regulate the
country's immigration policies, on June 22, signed the executive order temporarily banning issuing fresh H-1B and L-1 visas till December
use of random selection to allocate H-1B visas makes it harder for businesses to plan their hiring, fails to leverage the H-1B programme to
truly compete for the world's best and brightest, and hurts American workers by bringing in relatively lower-paid foreign labour at the
expense of the American workforce,? Cuccinelli said.According to the DHS, modifying the H-1B cap selection process by replacing the random
process would incentivise employers to offer higher wages or petition for positions requiring higher skills and higher-skilled workers
instead of using the programme to fill relatively lower-paid vacancies.The proposed changes would maintain the effective and efficient
administration of the H-1B cap selection process while providing some prospective petitioners the ability to potentially improve their
necessary to further the administration's goal of prioritising H-1B cap-subject registrations for petitioners seeking to employ
higher-skilled and higher paid workers, which is more aligned with the general congressional intent for the H-1B programme, the DHS
said.According to the federal notification, prioritising wage levels in the registration selection process incentivises employers to offer
higher wages, or to petition for positions requiring higher skills that commensurate with higher wage levels, to increase the likelihood of
which is a significant problem under the present selection system
With limited exceptions, H-1B petitioners are not required to demonstrate a labour shortage as a prerequisite for obtaining H-1B workers, it
said.The number of H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those filed for the advanced degree exemption, has frequently exceeded the annual
H-1B numerical allocations.For at least the last decade, USCIS has received more H-1B petitions than the annual H-1B numerical allocation in
first five days of filing (or the initial registration period) than the annual H-1B numerical allocations.The congressionally-mandated H-1B
visa has an annual cap of 65,000 visas.
