The United States has proposed to amend the regulations of the H-1B visa programme just days after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to curtail it.
The new proposal by the Department of Homeland Security seeks to scrap the existential lottery system and implement “a weighted selection process that would generally 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”.
Last week, Trump had signed a proclamation announcing a $100,000 fee for each new application. The visa allowed for companies in the US to hire skilled foreign workers in fields sucg as technology and engineering through a lottery system.
“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and this common-sense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down wages. It also gives certainty to American businesses who actually want to bring high-skilled workers to our great country but have been trampled on by abuses of the system”, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers clarified.