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News : Trump to Sign Executive Order to Review H1B Program ?

As we just heard from USCIS that there were 199K Petitions for FY 2018 and H1B Lottery completed, the US President’s office indicated that Trump is set to sign an Executive Order tomorrow April 17th, to crack down on the H1B program’s immigration fraud and save American Jobs.  So far, there is no official document released yet. But, we have news reported at Whitehouse Press conference, news agencies like Bloomberg and Recode.

Update : President Signed the EO – Check Summary of Executive Order,  H1B Visa Holders Impact 

Key topics that may be part of the executive order :

  • Review current H1B visa program and how to prevent fraud by outsourcing agencies/ body shops
  • Rule change options to offer H1B visas to high paid workers, similar to H1B 130K wage Bill
  • Take deeper look at how outsourcing companies are using H1B visas and avoid losing American jobs for less expensive foreign workforce.  The Trump Administration officials mention that outsourcing companies like TCS, CTS, Mphasis, etc. would receive fewer H1B visas and they have been briefed of the same.
  • Ideas to remove H1B Lottery and allot visas to more skilled and high paid workers.
  • Some H1B wage stats, quotes from the White House press briefing  :
    • 80 percent receive less than the median wage, and only 10 percent receive the median wage.  And so only 5 percent were categorized at the highest wage tier of the four wage tiers that are in place for the H1B guest worker visa”.
    • “There’s ways that you could adjust the lottery system to give master’s degree holders a better chance of getting H1Bs relative to bachelor’s degree holders.”

We do not know until the actual executive order draft is released..Stay tuned for updates. We will update article.

Check out H1B Visa Bills Tracker to get a view of current proposed bills in House and Senate

References :

   

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26 Comments

  1. @Saurabh
    I hope nothing … Being a bachelor’s degree holder with 6 years of experience in India.. I hope that trump executive order will be difficult to get approved as If he introduces merit based system it will be very difficult to implement since
    1 . salary varies from field to field
    2. It will only benefit top tiers which is of no use to the US economy .
    3. There will be more jobs outsourced to other countries which is only going to affect USA..

    Reply
    • H1B Extension ?,

      The order calls for review and reform of the H-1B program. We will have to wait for the proposals to know the impact. Until then its business as usual for everyone.

      Reply
  2. Trump will sign the executive order during a his visit to Kenosha, Wis., where he will visit the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc. The president is slated to tour the company prior to signing the executive order at 3:20 p.m. ET.

    Reply
  3. Its too late for this year, lottery is done. Trump’s team is just reacting on this years results and plans to change for next year. I do think Masters should go without lottery, just like cap exept. And then maybe leave 65k for non Masters only. Somewhere I read that this year 100k from 199 were Masters. So its only 99k for 65k visas, which is a good percentage in my opinion.
    I do not like 130k system though, as someone mentioned in some states 130K is a normal salary and in others in only for very high executives. I think putting min salary for each state would be a good option. So lets say for California its 130K and for Ohio its 70K.
    Also I feel like it will apply for renewals as well, meaning H1B visas from 2016 should obey below regulation.

    Reply
      • US also has lot of junk universities.. it wud be stupid to assume all masters degree holders are better resources… and most of them have very less work experience.. there is simply no advantage to US to give cap exemption to master degree holders.. the current 20K is fine enf..

        Reply
    • The 80k unselected from the AD will get pooled with the remaining 99k for regular. So it is not just 65k out of 99k. It is actually 65k out of 99k+80k.

      Reply
      • Yes, exactly. Debbie, the chances for Master’s degree applicants and higher than last year but not significantly better once they reach the regular pool as the math above shows.

        Reply
    • If all Master’s go without lottery then there is no need for 65k for Non-AD because there won’t be any jobs left, great tip.

      Reply
  4. The new Executive order is for next year, FY2019.
    the current FY2018 will be as much as last year.
    To make the new EO applicable for next year, they should start pursuing from now, thats it.

    Reply
      • Sanoop B,

        Although the order details are not known at this point, it may **contain** of 2 elements –

        (1) Impact on selection process – random selection vs more tailored selection
        (2) Impact on petition processing – more focus to weed out fraud, increase wages etc.

        (1) will have no impact on existing petitions or those who have been selected in FY-18. However (2) would impact all petitions that are filed in future, once it goes into effect.

        More details to be known once EO is publicized.

        Reply
    • Each and Every H1B has to go through renewal process. This EO would be applied to all. There is nothing like new H1B will be under this rule and old H1B get pass.

      Reply
  5. Hi, can some one help me to understand if this orders applies to the petitions approved in 2016 as well?
    if that is the case what would be the action plan for the petitioners who are preparing for Visa interview?

    Please help me to understand.

    Reply
    • Article in the above link talks quite a bit about allocation of H1B visas. It doesn’t talk about what has been allotted in the past years. So i don’t think you should have any impact, however if the reforms are applicable to H1B renewal then i guess everyone is in for a ride ….

      Reply
  6. Timing makes sense. It would be very difficult for various departments to understand the new exec order and implement changes. Also it remains to be seen if EO determines specific course of action or is it simply asking DHS to find out how they can resolve problems.

    Its a good step towards rewarding MS students and backlogged immigrants in EB2/3 category.

    Reply
  7. Saurabh/Kumar, I don’t understand the timing of this executive order. This comes right after USCIS announcing that H1B visas are allotted in the exact same way as previous years using a random selection process. So what’s the point of issuing an EO now when the visas are already allotted? How do you guys think that this EO could affect this year’s H1B visa allotment?

    Reply
    • I don’t think it will affect the picks.

      At most, it will give out more RFE and higher rejection rate. So more slots are going to waste this year.

      Reply
    • It wont.
      Executive order will be to study and report due in 220 days (or something like that). No change for this year but definitely next year it will be different.

      Reply

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