US set to tighten H-1B visa restrictions for skilled workers

The White House budget office is reviewing a fast-track regulation that would narrow the definition of a “specialty occupation” eligible for a skilled-worker visa under the H-1B programme, says a notice on the budget office’s website.

According to the Hindustan Times, the measures are intended to ensure American workers were not displaced or denied jobs because of cheaper foreign workers. Critics of the H-1B programme argue that US companies are hiring foreign workers to displace American ones, and that they are not highly skilled as they ought to be. More than 70% of these H-1B visas go to Indians hired by US companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, and US subsidiaries of Indian IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro and TCS.

The measures will be “utterly transformative” and will ensure there is “no market for someone to drive back down wages on H-1Bs to displace American workers”, reports the Reuters news agency quoting the white House senior adviser Stephen Miller.

The administration would expect to have them in place for maximum impact before elections on November 3. Reuters reported that these measures were being fast-tracked and the final bunch of orders could also include restriction on international students.