H-1B applicants face tough road ahead as US expands screening, moves closer to wage-based rule: ‘The biggest impact…’

H-1B applicants ar confronted with a hard yr forward as the political opposition to these visas is strengthened by a series of actions from the US administration. 

On Monday, the US Embassy in India announced that beginning December 15, the United States has “expanded” online presence reviews to encompass all H-1B and H-4 applicants as part of the standard visa screening process. This vetting is being implemented globally for “all applicants of all nationalities” within these two visa categories.

The embassy's statement comes at a time when pre-scheduled interviews for thousands of H-1B visa applicants in India, set for later this month, have been unexpectedly postponed by several months.

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In light of the challenges encountered by several applicants, the US Embassy announced on X, “WORLDWIDE ALERT FOR H-1B AND H-4 VISA APPLICANTS. Beginning December 15, the Department of State expanded online presence reviews to ALL H-1B and H-4 applicants as part of standard visa screening. This vetting is being conducted globally for ALL applicants of ALL nationalities for H1-B and H-4 visas.”

“It is an effort to address abuse of the H-1B program while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers,” it continued.

“US embassies and consulates continue to accept and process H-1B and H-4 nonimmigrant visa applications. We encourage applicants to apply as early as they can and anticipate additional processing time for these visa classifications.”

The US Department of Labour proposed a wage protection law, which experts believe may deter companies from sponsoring H-1B visas for their employees.

According to Manish Daftari, a partner at immigration consultancy Vialto Partners, this law would significantly raise the prevailing wage for all H-1B holders. CNBC reported. He further stated that firms are likely to decrease the number of H-1B sponsorships once this regulation is enacted.

Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly in the final stages of reviewing a proposal for a weighted selection rule that would prioritize the highest-paid workers in the H-1B lottery.

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In September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced a proposed rulemaking that aims to substitute the existing random H-1B lottery system with a weighted, wage-based method for selecting visa recipients. Petitioners offering wages at the upper end of the spectrum for a specific occupation would gain increased opportunities in the random selection process. This signifies a significant reform in the manner in which the government determines who is awarded the finite number of H-1B visa slots annually.

Cecilia Esterline, a senior immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, cautioned that “these rules could make the H-1B largely inaccessible to recent graduates and early career professionals– even if they work in emerging or critical fields,” as per CNBC.

Any modifications to the H-1B regulations are expected to disproportionately impact Indian nationals, who constitute over 70% of the program's recipients in recent years.

Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services, and Google are the leading five employers that sponsor H-1B visas, based on information from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“If one or both rules are implemented, there may be some job losses, but the biggest impact will likely be that companies move away from sponsoring H-1Bs for employees,” Daftari stated, as per CNBC.

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