US changes rules for H-1B work visas

The US is changing the H-1B visa program used by American tech companies to hire skilled workers from overseas, boosting the number awarded to people with advanced degrees from US universities.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the change on Wednesday. It would result in up to 5,340 more immigrants with a master’s degree or higher getting selected for the visa, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which published the new rules and oversees the program.

The change is with the lottery that decides who gets the 85,000 H-1B visas granted to for-profit companies every year. Under the previous system, an initial lottery granted 20,000 visas only to those holding advanced degrees granted by US institutions and then a general lottery granted 65,000 visas to all qualified applicants.

Under the adjusted system effective April 1, workers with advanced degrees seeking H-1B visas will first be entered into a general lottery that will allocate 65,000 visas. If they are not selected, they will have another chance through a second lottery for 20,000 visas, for which entry is restricted to advanced-degree holders. In the current system, the order of the two lotteries is reversed.

Francis Cissna, director of USCIS, described the changes as “simple and smart” in a statement, adding that they advanced “President Trump’s goal of improving our immigration system.”

Companies like Microsoft and Amazon apply for H-1B visas on behalf of thousands of foreign-born workers to fill their tech talent gaps.

Lisa Spiegel, an attorney at Duane Morris in San Francisco and head of the firm’s immigration group, told the San Francisco Chronicle: “I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of people going back to school.”

Jason Finkelman, an immigration attorney based in Austin, Texas, told The Wall Street Journal that now employers will think differently about what candidates they put up for the H-1B visa.

“Everyone wants to hire the most qualified candidate they can. But if I’m an employer and I have two candidates who are equally qualified for a position, and both require me to sponsor them for a visa, I’m probably going to want to file for the one with the master’s degree because now, mathematically, I have a better chance of getting them picked,” he said.