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posted by martyb on Friday February 01 2019, @01:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the getting-a-start dept.

The Department of Homeland Security announced a rule change Wednesday that will transform the lottery that decides who gets the 85,000 H-1B visas granted to for-profit companies every year.

Previously, an initial lottery granted 20,000 visas only to those holding advanced degrees granted by U.S. institutions — master’s degrees or doctorates — and then a general lottery granted 65,000 visas to all qualified applicants.

The Department of Homeland Security switched the order of these lotteries, it said in a notice of the final rule change, which will bolster the odds for highly educated foreign nationals. The change reduces the likelihood that people with just a bachelor’s degree will win in the general lottery, said Lisa Spiegel, an attorney at Duane Morris in San Francisco and head of the firm’s immigration group.

The program shift could hurt technology staffing companies, also known as outsourcers, who have a reputation for flooding the lottery with applications. Three Indian firms — Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro — often account for a majority of the H-1B applications, an analysis of government data shows.

LINK:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/H-1B-visa-lottery-changing-to-favor-those-with-13574410.php


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 01 2019, @11:34AM (2 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 01 2019, @11:34AM (#794980) Homepage Journal

    The primary goal of H1-Bs is to change the supply/demand dynamic of highly skilled positions. If you can increase the supply of qualified applicants for a position, you can pay them less.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 01 2019, @07:54PM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday February 01 2019, @07:54PM (#795157) Journal

    And, INCREASE is exactly what they are doing:

    The department said the rule change will result in an estimated increase of up to 16 percent in the number of H-1B visa holders..

    If you were hoping Trump was going to decrease the amount of H1-B visa holders then he is now doing the opposite.