Washington: US President Donald Trump’s administration has filed another bullet on the H- 1B visa program by seeking to replace the annual H- 1B cap lottery process a random selection method which leads to allotment of 85K visas with a wage based selection process.

If finalized as proposed, this new selection process would incentives US employers to offer higher wages or petition for positions requiring higher skills and higher skilled workers, instead of using the program to fill relatively lower paid vacancies, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, stated in its press release. Since, the procedural system for implementing a new policy has been followed that includes a 30 window for public comments. It will be some months before the proposed rule is finalized.

The proposed rule stems from the 2017 ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order of President Trump, which called for reforms to ensure that H- 1B visas are awarded only to the most skilled or highest paid beneficiaries.

This looks more like an election stunt than regulations that are properly thought out, said Arlington based Managing Attorney Rajiv S Khanna. If elected, the Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Government could choose not to proceed on these lines, said Immigration experts and IT sector representatives. H- 1B cap visas have an annual quota of 85K (which includes 20K in the Masters category). Under the current system, companies apply during the first week of April and applications are selected randomly.

USCIS first runs the H- 1B cap lottery to select enough applications to meet the 65 K H- 1B quotas. Advanced Degree cases not selected in the first lottery are placed in a second lottery to select enough qualifying applications to meet the 20K limit. If the proposed rule is finalized, it along with the wage hike rule would badly impact the prospects of H- 1B Indian aspirants, say experts.