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October 7, 2020 01:00 pm

Trump Administration Announces Overhaul of H-1B Visa Program

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Mercury News: The administration of President Donald Trump on Tuesday moved to impose major new limits on use of the controversial H-1B visa, intended for jobs requiring specialized skills and widely used by Silicon Valley technology firms. The new rules are expected to reduce the pool of skilled labor and raise costs for tech companies and other employers. Critics say that could force companies to move some operations outside the U.S. The announced changes involve new rules from both Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor.Homeland Security said its rule, effective 60 days after it's published in the federal register, would "combat the use of H-1B workers to serve as a low-cost replacement for otherwise qualified American workers." The Homeland Security rule would fulfill a long-running Trump administration promise to revise the definition of which "specialty occupations" are eligible for the visa, according to a draft copy released late Tuesday. Also revised would be definitions of "worksite," "third-party worksite" and "U.S. employer," as well as clarifying how the government will determine whether an "employer-employee" relationship exists. Placements of H-1B workers at third-party sites -- as staffing companies do -- would last a maximum of a year. The Labor Department's draft rule suggests visa approvals will require specific degrees for job types. If that change is made, it could lead to qualified applications being rejected, [said Sean Randolph, senior director of the Bay Area Council's Economic Institute.] While there are problems around wages paid to less-skilled H-1B holders, including those hired out to big tech firms by staffing companies, "it would be a mistake to tar and feather the entire system with that because what I've seen about how our tech companies here use the H-1Bs, they're very selective, and they're for important niche positions that otherwise a company would have a hard time filling," Randolph said.

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