WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security said it wouldn’t apply a Trump administration rule that would have effectively eliminated the H-1B visa lottery for high-skilled workers for the coming registration season and replaced it with a system that awards the visas to more experienced and higher-paid applicants.
The agency said it would delay the rule for the registration period starting in March until Dec. 31 and reopen it to public comment, leaving room for DHS to alter the rule before it takes effect next year. The delay offers some long-awaited certainty to businesses looking to sponsor foreign professionals for the visas this year.
The Trump administration, which finalized the rule in January, said the visa program artificially depressed wages by allowing employers to hire foreign workers at lower salaries, and that awarding visas to foreign professionals who would earn the highest salaries in their fields would create upward pressure on the market overall. The administration also tightened issuance of the visas, rejecting 15.1% of applications in 2019 compared with 6.1% in 2016, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The rule was criticized by business groups and other immigration advocates.
The Trump administration also said the coronavirus pandemic required limits on immigration to prevent sick people from entering the country and to ensure that Americans get jobs first as the economy rebounds.
Under the rule, visas would be awarded to applicants at the highest wage level of their given occupation within a particular geographic region. The government calculated four wage levels for each occupation in a given region, and employers would be required to pay salaries at or above those levels based on their visa worker’s job experience.
Read More: DHS Delays Rule That Would Have Effectively Eliminated H-1B Visa Lottery