H-1B Visa: US Government Proposes Weighted Selection Framework

In a major development, the US government has proposed sweeping changes to the H-1B visa programme, aiming to do away with the traditional lottery system in order to accommodate a weighted-selection process that prioritises higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign workers.

This comes on the back of US President Donald Trump's recent move to levy a $100,000 one-time fee for fresh H-1B visa petitioners. The move was made to tighten restrictions around the H-1B visa programme and promote 'American workers'.

The new proposal for the H-1B visa program was tabled by the Department of Homeland Security. The new framework would base visa allocation on wage levels, with applicants belonging to higher salary tiers to see multiple entries into the selection pool.

As per the draft rule, foreign workers earning at the top of the scale - an annual salary of $162,528 or above- would be added into the pool four times. In contrast, those with the lowest tier would receive only one entry.

While the idea of a lottery system would remain, this new framework will significantly reduce the chances of a worker belonging to the lowest salary tier. The US government currently has a slab of four wage levels.

This falls in line with the Trump Administration's strategy to hire more American workers. While signing the proclamation, the US president said, “The incentive is to hire American workers."

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the H1B non-immigrant visa programme is one of the “most abused visa” systems in the country’s current immigration system.

Should the new framework be implemented, it would drastically reshape the pathway for skilled foreign workers to enter the United States, especially in the technology sector, which has long relied on H-1B visas for staffing.