Athira Sethu
Kochi, 24 September 2025
The American government is to shift the way the H-1B visa program operates, only a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to cap it.
H-1B visas are currently allocated by random lottery, where applicants are selected randomly. But the new plan from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to shift that to a system that favors higher-paid and more skilled employees.
Under this scheme, the employees would be entered into the pool of selection depending on their amount of pay. For instance:
- An employee earning $162,000 or higher would receive four entries in the pool.
- An employee earning a lower wage would receive only one entry.
Immigration attorney Nicole Gunara explained this shift would move career possibilities to large corporations that are able to offer high wages, and away from startups or smaller businesses that employ younger, entry-level, lower-paid employees. It would also become more difficult for recent graduates or entry-level foreign workers to find jobs in the U.S.
President Trump also last week announced a new $100,000 charge for every new H-1B petition. The visa is primarily employed by engineering and tech firms to import foreign skilled workers.
The White House stated the intention to defend American workers and prevent businesses from taking advantage of the system. President Trump stated that the changes are intended to persuade businesses to hire Americans first.
The largest nationality on H-1B visas are Indians, 71% of all approved petitions are from India. That implies that Indian IT firms such as TCS, Infosys, and Wipro might take a huge hit. They might recruit fewer employees or shift jobs back to India.
All these changes were announced when Indian ministers S. Jaishankar and Piyush Goyal visited the U.S. to discuss with American officials.
White House staffer Will Scharf labeled the H-1B visa as one of the country’s most abused programs and implied that additional changes are on the way.
