Mr. Donald Trump, the former President of the United States had intended to replace the current procedure of obtaining the H1-B Visa from the cap lottery system to the wage – level – based selection process.
Judge Jeffrey S. White, a Federal Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has recently struck down and vacated the regulation for the H1-B selection stating that Chad Wolf, the former Acting Homeland Security Secretary was illegally appointed at his service then. The rule violated the Administrative Procedures Act and therefore was invalid.
The Trump Administrative system was to implement the rule in order to prioritize American Citizens for job selection. However, an adverse effect could have been created on the technology companies who depend upon thousands of employees from India and China as well as the universities that attract foreign students as the students would no longer take up courses with American Universities because of an unsecured career path.
The US Chamber of Commerce had approached the Court challenging the rule as a result of which, the District Court had temporarily stayed the rule. The Petitioner argued that the
Trump – Era rules were in –
Violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the H1-B visa to be issued to non – citizens “in the order in which the petitions are filed for such visas.”
As a result of the wage – level – based selection process, many highly educated people such as Microbiologists, Medical Scientists, Physicists, teachers and many others who are paid lower wages would not be able to come to the U.S. for their employment. This would cause inconvenience to the Schools and other such companies that would fall short of employees to run their organizations.
Every year the U.S. Issues 65,000 H1-B Visas and additional 20,000 visas reserved for those students who pursue their Masters from the U.S. Since the applications are much higher than the allotted number, a lottery based system is used.