US Immigration News

H-1B Selection Process Changes by Prioritizing Wages

1.75 minute read
"The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on January 7, 2021, concerning a final rule change in the H1-B Visa cap selection process. The USCIS announced that the final rule will affect the selection process of lottery procedures and will prioritize wages to protect the interests of US workers."
Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on:  Apr 12, 2021
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The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on January 7, 2021, concerning a final rule change in the H1-B Visa cap selection process. 

The USCIS announced that the final rule will affect the selection process of lottery procedures and will prioritize wages to protect the interests of US workers. 

What is the H1-B Visa Selection Process?

According to the USCIS, the current selection process for the H1-B Visa makes it difficult for businesses to plan their hiring and fails to make the foreign workers compete resulting in an influx of foreign workers in low-wage positions at the expense of US workers. See our H-1B Visa Business Plan service.

The final rule change will provide benefits to the employers to offer high wage positions and hire highly skilled workers and help them to establish a plan for their personnel needs and remain competitive. 

This final rule will be implemented 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. 

How Will the Final Rule Affect the H1-B Visa Selection Process?

This alteration will only affect H1-B applications submitted by foreign workers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions for H-1B regular cap and H-1B advanced degree exemption. 

This rule will not affect the selection order between the two as set by the H1-B registration final rule.

According to the USCIS, this rule was introduced after careful consideration of public comments received by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on their published notice of proposed rulemaking.

According to the final rule, a registration system will implement the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and prioritize applications based on wage level within each cap and subsequently incentivize H-1B employers who offer high wage positions or petition highly skilled foreign workers. 

This rule will also maximize the H-1B cap allocations to ensure that the best and most talented workers are selected, it will also disincentivize the abuse of the H-1B program to fill low-wage positions. 

The USCIS can issue up to 65,000 H-1B visas every year according to the Congressional-mandated cap. It can also issue an additional 20,000 H-1B visas to foreign students who have graduated from US universities in STEM subjects. 

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