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US To Revise H-1B Visa Definition, Planning Repeal Of H-4 Visa: 10 Points
18 Oct 2018, 02:55 PM IST 
H-1B visa: IT firms depend on H-1B to hire employees each year from countries like India and China.
- The DHS said On Wednesday that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with a new proposal by January, 2019. USCIS will propose revision of the "definition of specialty occupation" to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.
- DHS will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, the DHS said. Such a move is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration.
- In addition, the DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration was quoted as saying in the PTI report.
- The DHS said it will also finalise its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.
- This rule precludes an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker. The rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.
- Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, the DHS said it was proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications.
- Trump administration is also planning to revoke a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the US, a move that could impact tens of thousands of Indians. Abandoning the Obama-era rule of granting work permits to H-4 visa holders - who are spouses of professionals holding H-1B visas, mostly Indians - will benefit some US workers, the DHS believes.
- H-4 visa is issued to spouses of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India. The DHS said the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labour market early.
- The move could impact more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, who have had obtained work permits under a special order issued by the previous Obama administration in 2015.
- The Trump administration is reviewing the H-1B visa policy that it thinks is being misused by companies to replace American workers. (With agency inputs)