USA TODAY International Edition
H- 1B visa holders might get more expensive, more educated
New Executive Order seems to look toward auctionlike system
SAN FRANCISCO Companies that want to fill positions with non-U. S. workers on H- 1B visas will end up having to pay them more — and they’ll likely need to be better educated in general — under a new executive order signed by President Trump on Tuesday that could make the business model of tech outsourcing firms less viable.
The order is light on details but one crucial phrase could signal its intent. Government agencies are to suggest reforms that ensure H- 1B visas go to the “most- skilled or highest- paid.”
“Right now, H- 1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery, and that’s wrong,” Trump said at the signing ceremony at Snap- On Tools in Kenosha, Wis.
How that might be implemented is not addressed. Options might include moving from the current lottery model to something more like an auction, experts say.
For example, it could mean “if a company is offering $ 140,000 for one position and another is offering $ 70,000, the $ 140,000 is going to be selected,” said Ted Ruthizer, a partner and expert in immigration law at the New York firm of Kramer Levin.
In the educational realm, it might mean putting Ph. D. holders above those with master’s degrees, who would be above those with bachelor’s. The largest impact likely would be on outsourcing companies such as Tata and Infosys, which have built lucrative businesses by bringing computer professionals, often from India, into the U. S. on H- 1B visas — the specialized work visas favored by the tech industry. Currently, 35% to 40% of H- 1B visas go to these types of professional staffing companies, said Todd Schulte, president of FWD. us, a science and tech- focused organization that lobbies for immigration reform. His group has advocated for immigration reform that would, among other things, raise the salary floor for these visas above $ 60,000, the figure at which they can skirt restrictions on displacing Americans. The floor was set by Congress in 1991 but because it was not indexed to inflation, it now represents the very lowest end of the wage scale for skilled tech workers.
The Executive Order on its own doesn’t do anything beyond telling the secretary of State, the attorney general, the secretary of Labor and the secretary of Homeland Security to suggest reforms. Once those changes are agreed upon, Congress would then have to write and pass legislation enacting them, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor and expert on immigration at Cornell University.