One of the most far-reaching and important H-1 changes will be seen this year during the H-1 lottery. For the first time since the current H-1 category was created in 1990, USCIS is imposing restrictions on which categories of “professional and highly skilled” employees/job offers will be favored during the selection process.
Under the recently issued regulations, USCIS will afford greater “weight” to those jobs that require a master’s or higher degree (much more weight than the previous 15,000 Master’s/PhD positions out of the 85,000 total), and those jobs with higher compensation levels. For example, the jobs that require higher degrees and pay the highest salaries will be favored by “4x” times, down to entry level jobs which only require a bachelor’s degree and no experience at “1x” time. In essence, this means it is unlikely very many, if any, bachelor’s degree jobs will be selected in the lottery for the coming fiscal year.
There are still may questions about this program, not the least of which is that it appears to contradict the intent of Congress when the H-1 category was created and therefore will be stopped in Federal Court.
But one issue seems obvious at this point: entry level, bachelor’s degree jobs will probably not be selected, so applicants will have to consider extending their education to obtain a master’s degree.
We will of course provide more clarification when we receive it. Should anyone have any questions, please contact our Managing Partner, David Swaim, david@immigration-pros.com.
