More changes in H1B visa hinted by Trump Administration :
Under the new H-1B visa rule , which could go into effect in February , US firms will be required to first electronically register for visas that are subject to an annual cap of 85,000 . The Trump administration plans to revive a rule proposed in 2011 to introduce pre-registration for employers planning to hire foreigners under the H-1B visa programme , and change the definition of the high speciality occupation it applied to .
Under the new rule , which could go into effect in February , US firms will be required to first electronically register for visas that are subject to an annual cap of 85,000 — 65,000 for foreigners coming in from abroad and 20,000 for foreigners with advanced degrees from US colleges and universities .
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ( USCIS ), which runs the H-1B visa programme , will randomly select — possibly through an electronic lottery — beneficiary employers from among those registered .
It wasn ’ t immediately clear if this could make it easier or difficult for US employers — which also include American subsidiaries of Indian IT giants Infosys , TCS and Wipro — to hire H-1B workers .
An estimated 70 % of H-1B workers come from India , who also include those employed by US companies such as Microsoft , Google and Facebook .
The pre-registration rule was proposed by the department of homeland security ( DHS ) — the parent ministry of the USCIS — in its regulatory plan for 2018 filed earlier this month . No operational details would be available till the rule is published in the federal register , which is expected in February .
The same regulatory plan also indicated that the administration was planning to withdraw an Obama-era rule that allows work-permits to spouses of H-1B visa-holders who are awaiting permanent residency , popularly known as green card .
This was in line with the Trump administration ’ s focus on preserving American jobs for Americans under the overarching Buy American , Hire American objective . Driven by the same objective , the DHS also plans “ a proposed rule that would revise the definition of specialty occupation to increase focus on truly obtaining the best and brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B program and would revise the definition of employment and employer-employee relationship to help better protect US workers and wages ”.