President Biden's new regulatory agenda was recently released,
and it indicates major changes to the H-1B
visa program in 2022.
Some of these include a proposed increase in H-1B wages,
cracking down on American employers who abuse the program,
and making it easier for immigrant students to get H-1B status.
Republicans,
meanwhile, are proposing legislation that would essentially reinstate
Trump era policies and discourage
companies from hiring H-1B workers.
Stay tuned
to find out what the Biden administration has planned for H-1B visas this year
and the likelihood of Republicans passing legislation to stop it.
And if this is your first time on my channel, please be sure to subscribe
and turn on notifications for regular immigration news updates.
Why is the Biden administration making changes to the H-1B program in 2022?
Before President Biden took office, former President Trump directed
USCIS to be conservative when approving H-1B applications,
resulting in approximately 10% fewer approvals each year.
The Trump administration also attempted to pass rules that would increase the H-1B
employee wages by 40%—effectively pricing them out of the labor market—and
to abandon the lottery system for a wage-based system
that would discourage employers from using the program.
Fortunately, these rules were overturned but the Biden administration
still intends to modernize the H-1B program and give USCIS guidance
as it transitions away from these Trump policies.
So what sort of changes can we expect to H-1B visas this year?
There is a DHS proposed rule that was supposed to be released
in December of 2021, but is now scheduled to be published in May of 2022.
As mentioned in one of my recent videos, this rule will:
alter the employer employee relationship, regulate site visits,
clarify "cap-gap" benefits for F1 students with pending H-1B change of status,
clarify when material changes to H-1B employment occurs and an amended
H-1B petition is required and streamline notification requirements to USCIS
when an H-1B employee's worksite location changes.
The language is not very clear, so exactly what does it mean?
First, the employer employee relationship determines
whether or not a company or organization qualifies as a U.S.
employer and can use H-1B employees.
Currently, it is defined as the ability to "hire, pay
fire, supervised or otherwise control the work of" an employee.
DHS wants to remove this definition and implement
a more extensive one that makes it so both employers need to file an H-1B petition
for the employee if they're going to work at a third party worksite.
Second, the site visit guidelines are being strengthened
to stop "fly-by-night" hiring agencies from abusing the program.
If a company hiring H-1B employees does not have basic business information
that is commercially available, then unannounced site visits
will be conducted by DHS to identify
fraud and misuse of the program.
And third, the "cap-gap" refers to the period of time
an international student's F-1 status ends and their H-1B status begins.
International students are able to use a program called
Optional Practical Training—or OPT—to work in the U.S.
for one to three years after graduating.
After that,
the companies can switch them
to H-1B status, but if the H-1B application is not processed
before the expiration of the OPT program, the immigrant has to stop working.
The Biden administration plans to change this.
In addition to the DHS rule, the Department of Labor intensive proceed
with a rule
that will raise the prevailing wages for H-1B and green card holders this year.
This increase will be lower than the 40% proposed by the Trump administration,
and it is designed to ensure foreign workers are not underpaid
by American companies, something that President Biden emphasized
during his campaign.
So how are Republicans trying to stop
the Biden administration from making these changes?
The "American Tech Workforce Act of 2021" was recently introduced
in the House of Representatives by the Republican Study Committee,
and it would eliminate the OPT program and set a wage floor for H-1B
visas at $110,000, which is the high
end of the pay range for American workers.
The bill has tech in the name because Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook,
IBM and Apple have been among the top recipients of H-1B visas in recent years
and conservative organizations accuse them of outsourcing
inexpensive foreign labor instead of hiring American employees.
According to the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy,
there are more than 1.2 million vacant jobs in computer occupations
in the United States, so any legislation restricting the H-1B
program will likely hurt the economy rather than help American workers.
What do you think?
Are President Biden's H-1B reforms a good thing?
Will the Republican bill make it through Congress?
Leave me a comment and let me know.
I do think that Republicans may not realize that setting a wage floor
for H-1B visas is going to hurt many small businesses
that do rely on the H-1B program to bring in workers.
Moreover, the Republicans failed to realize that in this strategy,
the majority of H-1B employees are actually those who come to study in the US
and who engage in four year programs, to study at American universities,
knowing that there is a possibility of being able to remain in the U.S.
on an H-1B visa at the end of their studies.
If this legislation does pass, then I do believe that it would hurt
not just these smaller employers, but also would further
harm the financial ability of universities to operate.
If you want to learn more about the H-1B visa interview waivers recently announced
by the State Department, I will include a link to that video here.
I will also continue to bring you additional news as it's available,
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Click here to watch this video next, and I'll see you there.