The Donald Trump administration is planning to revamp the H1-B visa lottery system, aiming to replace it with a more weighted and wage-linked selection process.
Accordingly, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a filing on July 17, the administration has proposed the introduction of a “weighted selection process” for the capped category of the system. It has already been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
The proposed changes aim to give preference to certain applicants based on additional criteria—potentially including wages—thereby benefiting highly-skilled and higher-paid professionals.
The H1-B visa lottery system has been a topic of debate between Trump and his supporters and it has often been critcised as ‘broken’.
Here a look at the new system and how it different from the existing one.
How the candidates are chosen in the current format?
Currently, the system is quite simple! Applicants who are eligible for H1-B visa submit their applications, and a computer-run lottery randomly selects the recipients.
Each year, about 85,000 H-1B visas are issued, including 20,000 reserved for individuals holding a Master’s degree or higher from a U.S. university. However, demand is each passing day.
How the new system will work?
Right now there is no clarity about how the new system will work as DHS has not shared many details publicly yet.
However, a study by the Institute for Progress earlier this year found, as reported by HT, that if higher salaries were given priority instead of using a random lottery, the average salary of an H-1B visa holder could rise from around $106,000 to $172,000.
That would make things much harder for outsourcing firms who rely on hiring large numbers of lower-wage workers, but could be a big plus for researchers, PhD holders, and senior-level tech professionals, the report also said.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is still finalising the draft of the proposed rule, which will go through a public review process before becoming official. If approved, the new system might go live next year.