H-1B lottery scrapped as US prioritises higher-skilled, higher-paid workers | Why the overhaul?
The overhaul is among a series of actions taken by the Trump administration to curb abuse of the H-1B visa programme that is a key pathway for skilled overseas workers to work and immigrate to the United States.
New Delhi: The Trump administration in the US has scrapped the existing H-1B work visa selection procedure, replacing the random lottery system with a process that gives preference to those with higher skills. The US said that the move is aimed at protecting the "wages, working conditions, and job opportunities for American workers".
The overhaul is among a series of actions taken by the Trump administration to curb abuse of the H-1B visa programme that is a key pathway for skilled overseas workers to work and immigrate to the United States. The scrapping of the lottery selection process is expected to make it difficult for entry-level professionals, including those from India, to access work visa in America.
US prioritises high-skilled foreign workers
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in a statement, said it is "amending regulations governing the H-1B work visa selection process to prioritise the allocation of visas to higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens". It further said that the new rule replaces the H-1B random lottery selection with a process that gives "greater weight to those with higher skills".
According to the DHS, the new rule will come into effect on February 27, 2026. It will govern the allocation of approximately 85,000 H-1B visas annually beginning with the fiscal 2027 registration season.
Why the change?
The DHS said that the random lottery system for selecting H-1B visa recipients was allegedly misused by American companies to hire foreign workers at lower wages.
"The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by US employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers," said US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Matthew Tragesser.