New Delhi: The US has made a significant change to the H-1B work visa programme by ending the lengthy lottery system. H-1B visas will now be awarded according to an individual’s skill set and salary. According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the new system will prioritize foreign workers for jobs which require advanced skill sets and high salary employers are willing to pay.
This change is most significant for Indian workers who are the primary recipients of H-1B visas every year. It is also a change coming at a time when US officials are trying to increase scrutiny of employment-based visas to legally enforce system abuse.
Matthew Tragesser, the Public Affairs Officer for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), stated that the old system of lotteries was often legally abused. He stated that employers used the lottery system to justify hiring foreign workers at lower wages, rather than hiring US workers.
Tragesser stated that the new system will encourage employers to ‘go after the best of the best’, leading to the employment of highly skilled, well compensated workers as was intended by Congress when establishing the H-1B programme.
What is the case for getting rid of the lottery system?
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the lottery system has been the target of criticism for allowing employers to underutilize the system by hiring foreign nationals with lower skills and offering lower pay. The department stated that this results in an avalanche of low-wage foreign worker applications that adversely affect the job opportunities and wage levels of American workers. Officials believe the revised system is intended to address the issues outlined.
What is the functioning of a revised system?
In keeping with the newly designed system, H-1B visas will be allocated through a weighted system. That is, applications which stipulate payment above the current level and are linked to high-demand skills will have higher odds of being selected.
Still, the DHS pointed out that employers will be free to seek out workers at other wage levels. What is different is the fact that higher skilled, higher paying jobs will be in a preferred position. These new rules will take effect on February 27, 2026 and will affect the FY 2027 H-1B cap registration season.
Currently, the United States allocates 65,000 H-1B visas on a yearly basis, in addition to 20,000 additional visas set aside for applicants with advanced degrees from American universities. According to the DHS, the changes are part of a broader set of legislative changes during the Trump administration that made a number of visa and, in particular, H1B visas tougher and more expensive.
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