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The federal government is moving ahead with a plan to transform the application process for the controversial H-1B visa.
Under the planned rule that would apply to H-1B visas that are subject to the annual 85,000 cap on new visas, companies seeking H-1Bs for foreign workers would have to submit a free online registration form instead of an initial application, before the window for applications opened each April. The date for submitting registrations would be announced at least 30 days before the registrations started, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration. Authorities would then select the registrations it would allow to go forward in the application process. New visas are awarded by lottery.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration announced in the federal register Thursday that it was pushing the registration plan into its final stages, and opened a 60-day public comment period that will last until August 26.
The H-1B visa, intended for jobs requiring specialized skills, has become a flashpoint in America’s immigration debate. Under President Donald Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, federal authorities have dramatically boosted the rate of denials for visas, with outsourcing companies taking the hardest hit. While Silicon Valley tech firms rely heavily on the visa to secure top global talent, critics point to reported abuses by outsourcers they allege are supplanting U.S. workers with cheaper foreign talent, and driving down wages.
The registration requirement is part of a regulation that also included tweaking the H-1B-selection lottery to favor more highly educated graduates of U.S. colleges and universities, a change finalized in January, with the new system used in this year’s lottery, in April.
Through the lottery, 85,000 new H-1B visas are issued annually. Non-profits, schools of higher education and government organizations are exempt from the annual cap.
