The Trump administration is proposing major changes to the selection process for H-1B visas heavily used by the tech industry, basing allocation on skill-level required and wages offered for a position instead of the current randomised lottery.
The proposal, released yesterday, is the latest effort by President Donald Trump to overhaul the H-1B programme, which has become a lightning rod in conservative circles as critics argue that recipients displace American workers. The proposal wouldn’t base visa allocation strictly on highest wages offered, instead it would assign each prospective worker to four wage bands based on Labour Department surveys.
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 – earning an average annual salary of $162,528 - would be entered into the selection pool four times; those in the lowest tier would be entered only once.
That process “would favour the allocation of H-1B visas to higher skilled and higher paid aliens, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels,” the proposal said.
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