The US government is planning to overhaul the H-1 B visa and green card system. The Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick calls the current H-1B visa system a scam. The Trump administration is focused on wage-based immigration and merit-driven selection. The main goal is to replace the lottery system with a selective model.
Calling the H1-B visa system a scam, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that he is going to change its process because it's terrible. The Donald Trump administration is planning a significant overhaul of the United States H-1B visa and green card system, signalling a shift towards wage-based immigration and merit-driven selection.
Lutnick said on Monday that he is involved in the proposed reforms, which aim to replace the current lottery-based system with a more selective model. "We are going to change the Green card. We give green cards. The average American makes $75,000 a year, and the average green card recipient makes $66,000 a year," Lutnick told Fox News, questioning, "Why are we doing that? It's like picking the bottom core."
The proposed changes are expected to include eliminating the H-1B lottery system and introducing a wage-based allocation, where visas are given to higher-earning applicants first. A draft rule to this effect was approved by the US Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs earlier this month.
Currently, the H-1B program, widely used by the tech industry, has an annual cap of 85,000 visas. Each spring, a random lottery decides which employees can proceed with visa petitions. In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security proposed allocating H-1B slots based on wage levels divided into four tiers. During the first Trump administration, DHS sought to replace the random selection with a wage priority system. The proposed rule would rank petitions based on wages offered, divided into four tiers, prioritising higher-paid jobs. This effort was part of the administration's Buy American Hire American policy to ensure H-1B visas favoured highly skilled and well-compensated foreign workers.
However, the Biden administration withdrew this rule in 2021 following significant opposition. More than 1,000 public comments criticised the change, warning that it could sharply reduce the number of eligible foreign workers. Federal courts also blocked related attempts to increase minimum wages and tighten the definition of qualifying jobs under the program.
The Federal courts had blocked earlier attempts to raise wage floors and restrict qualifying H-1B job categories. The current approval suggests that the government may revisit its push for changes in the H-1B visa allocation process.
Trump has frequently criticised the H-1B visa program, arguing that it was often used to bring in cheaper foreign labour at the expense of American workers.
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