Trump changes US H-1B visa rules

“Premium processing” of H-1B visas, which allowed skilled workers to pay extra to request faster approval to work in the U.S., will no longer be available starting April 3, immigration authorities announced. That basically means all applicants will have to wait the standard period to see if they have won the “lottery,” without the option to pay an extra $1,225 filing fee for guaranteed answer after 15 days.

“This is not new for anybody. Last year they did the same thing,” Khanna said. “It simply means a diversion of resources toward other programs that lack resources.”

Indeed, last year immigration authorities said they were delaying premium processing until May 16. But this year’s announcement gives a six-month window, not a specific date, for the premium processing delay.

For highly skilled foreign nationals hoping to work in the U.S., the H-1B visa program was already a gamble, as a relatively small number of spots are allocated through a lottery process. Almost all H-1B visa workers start working in October, and that won’t change, Khanna said.

H-1B visas applicants must apply six months in advance of their start date — meaning an April 1 application for an Oct.1 start date. Indeed, last year, the H-1B visa program hit its cap for petitions by April 7.

What will change is how fast employers and workers get a “yay” or “nay” on whether they were one of the lucky ones.

The change quickly prompted reports that the Trump administration is “dismantling the H-1B visa” and will “leave many people and companies in limbo.”

But the H-1B announcement (not to be conflated with an updated travel ban signed Monday) is closer to a supply chain issue, Samaratunga said.

U.S. immigration authorities said temporary suspension will free them up to sift through a backlog of long-pending applications. That means the majority of visa applicants won’t face the long wait times they have in years past.