H1B Visa Rules Tightened: Getting US Visa May Get Tougher for Indians, Here’s Why

H1B visa rules have been further tightened by the Trump administration ahead of the election season. The move is aimed at protecting US workers and their jobs, and ultimately reducing the dependency on foreign workers. The move is especially expected to hit Indian and Chinese US visa holders who are the highest beneficiaries of the H1B visa program.

Why the New H1B Visa Rules Makes it Harder for Indians to get US Visa?

A clause in the document issued by the Department of Labor says “By setting the Level I wage level at the 45th percentile, employers using the H1B and PERM programs will have less of an incentive to replace US workers doing similar jobs at lower wage rates when there are available US workers. This will increase earnings and standards of living for US workers. It also will level the playing field by reducing incentives to replace similarly employed US workers with a low-cost foreign alternative.”

What this means is the Trump administration will implement the following two rules, thus reducing IT companies’ dependency on foreign workers:

• Raising the entry-level wage requirement to 45 percentile from 17 percentile.
• Raising the highest skill wage requirement to 95 percentile from 67 percentile.

This would certainly impact the hiring of foreign workers as the present level 4 wages area s follows as per the data available on Foreign Labor Certification  Data Center Online Wage Library (The dollar amount depends on the area in which an H1B visa holder resides):

Since this move aims at increasing the base salary being paid to skilled workers it is likely to lead to fewer American companies opting for foreign workers and subsequently lessen green card and H1B applicants.