After fee hike, US proposes new H-1B visa selection system

Just days after US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to increase the fees for H-1B visas to USD 100,000, leaving several thousand immigrant workers in a quandary, the White House has released a proposal that would amend the visa selection process to make it favourable for higher-skilled and better-paid workers, a Federal Register notice said.

If the new proposal by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was released on Tuesday (September 23), comes into effect, it would “implement a weighted selection process that would generally favor 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, to better serve the Congressional intent for the H-1B program”.

Protecting American workers

Under the new process, applications would be given a heavier weight by employers who pay higher salaries if annual requests for the visas go beyond the statutory limit of 85,000. The move is aimed at protecting American workers from foreign workers’ unfair competition on wages.

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The Republican administration led by Trump began an extensive crackdown on immigration soon after taking office in January. It sought mass deportations and blocking citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants born in the US. More recently, the Trump White House has focused on the H-1B programme, a popular one with technology and outsourcing firms for roping in skilled workers from other countries, including India.

The proposal would alter an existing lottery process to get the visas if demand outstrips supply in a given year. It would lead to wage tiers through which higher-paying jobs would have more chances of getting selected, agencies reported.

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The reports also said that the process to finalise a regulation could take a long time, even years. The new rules could become effective for the 2026 lottery, as per the notice’s indication.

Wages to H-1B workers to go up

Total wages paid to H-1B workers were likely to go up to USD 502 million in the 2026 fiscal year, beginning on October 1, the notice said, citing the DHS's estimates. Those salaries could go up by USD 1 billion in fiscal 2027, USD 1.5 billion in fiscal 2028, and USD 2 billion in 2029-35, it added.

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The DHS said around 5,200 small businesses that currently receive H-1B visas would be significantly affected due to the loss of labour.