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H1B Visa News: The Trump administration in America is preparing to increase even more strictness on the H-1B visa system. In the new scheme, the selection process will be made stricter with a fee of Rs 88 lakh. This may affect thousands of IT and education sector professionals around the world including India.
H1B Visa News: Donald Trump administration in America is again preparing to make a major change in the rules of H-1B visa. These visas are especially important for Indian IT professionals and students, because this paves the way for working in America and later getting a green card. But now the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a new proposal named ‘Reforming the H-1B Visa Non-Immigrant Visa Program’. This not only includes a new fee of $1 lakh, but also many strict changes – like which company can use this visa, for which posts applications will be valid and monitoring of third party companies will be increased.
What is the new proposal?
Under the new rules, there is now a plan to implement ‘Wage-Based Selection’ in the selection of H-1B visa. That means, those who will get higher salary will be given priority. Till now this selection was completely based on lottery system. DHS says the purpose of these changes is to ‘protect the interests of American workers and increase transparency of the visa process.’ If this rule is implemented, it will be difficult for students who want to work in America and working professionals with less experience to enter. Also, the government will keep a close watch on companies that have violated visa rules in the past.
When will the rules come into force?
Currently this proposal has been placed in the Federal Register for public suggestions. If everything happens on time, this new rule may come into effect by December 2025. The H-1B visa was introduced under the Immigration Act of 1990 to allow American companies to bring in skilled people whose expertise is not easily found in the United States. This is the reason why thousands of Indians are working in companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon on this visa. Currently, the US issues 65,000 H-1B visas every year, and an additional 20,000 visas go to holders of a master’s degree or higher from a US university. About 75% of all H-1B visas granted in 2023 went to Indian citizens. In such a situation, this step is also a big news for India.
Yogendra Mishra has graduated in Journalism from Allahabad University. He has been associated with media since 2017. After serving in News Nation, TV 9 Bharatvarsh and Navbharat Times, now News18 is… read more