The US Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new rule to select H-1B registrations based on wage levels instead of the lottery process to protect the jobs of American workers.
The proposed changes will be open for comment before implementation.
The department said in a statement “Modifying the H-1B cap selection process by replacing the random selection process with a wage-level-based selection process is a better way to allocate H-1Bs when demand exceeds supply,”.
If finalized as proposed, this new selection process would incentivize employers to offer higher wages or petition for positions requiring higher skills and higher-skilled workers instead of using the program to fill relatively lower-paid vacancies, the agency further added.
The move comes a week before elections and nearly three weeks after the government implemented wage hikes and tightened the current H-1B rules. The two rules would have a significant impact on the Indian tech workforce in the US.
Interested parties will have 30 days to submit comments relevant to the proposed rule and 60 days to submit comments relevant to the proposed information collection. The department will review all properly submitted comments, consider them carefully, and draft responses before issuing a final rule.