The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would direct more inspectors in the H-1B program to the controversial outsourcing companies, many of them based in India.
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Another provision calls on the Department of Homeland Security to begin “site visits” at places that employ guest workers with L-1 visas and then to expand the site-visit program to cover all employment-based visa programs within two years.
The crackdowns were announced as USCIS opened the application process on Monday for H-1B visas next year, kicking off what has become a mad scramble for the 85,000 slots highly coveted by American tech companies.
The guidelines are created to ensure employers aren’t hiring entry-level engineers from other countries and to encourage them to fill those jobs with American workers.
On Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would take a “more targeted approach” in site visits to the workplaces of H-1B petitioners. Thus there is a large-scale fear among the Indian IT companies and workers that the tightening of visa rules by the U.S. administration would substantially decrease the flow of Indian IT professionals from India to America.
The H-1B program helps companies in the United States bring in temporary workers from overseas for up to six years to do work that is highly specialized and requires a bachelor’s degree or higher in a particular specialty, or its equivalent. The lucky ones who receive an H1B visa can begin work on October 1.
The ruling reverses the US’ more than decades and a half old guidelines, that were issued in the context of addressing the new millennium needs.
And Monday, the Justice Department warned that it would look closely at any employer who discriminates against American workers by showing a preference for hiring H-1B workers. In 2014, about 65 per cent of all H-1B visas were allotted to computer-related jobs, according to U.S. government data.
Companies that rely heavily on H-1B workers will shoot up the priority list for audits, USCIS said.
Meanwhile the chorus of those against the H-1B visa programme seems to be only growing. But the program has been especially contested in the past year, becoming an election issue with promises from President Donald Trump to reform the program to set aside more of those jobs for American workers.
The new guidelines released Friday require additional information for computer programmers applying for H-1B visas to prove the jobs are complicated and require more advanced knowledge and experience. Because of the large number of applicants – 236,000 in 2016 – the H1-B visas were issued through a lottery system. “An entry-level computer programmer position would not generally qualify as a position in a specialty occupation”.
Franklin Nelson, a Los Angeles immigration attorney who specializes in H-1B visas, said he expects his clients to hear back from the government beginning in July.
Q: Are more changes coming that could affect the technology sector?
Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc., IBM and Accenture didn’t immediately have a comment.
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“The President has spoken about the H-1B visa program in the past”, he added. Trump has previously expressed his intention to overhaul the visa program out of concern it is being abused.
