Work & Settle Abroad | Permanent Resident

New DHS Rule

US Immigration - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a new rule that is proposed to be set in place for the H-1b visa. Under the new rule all applicants who are planning to petition for the cap subject quota for H-1b visa need to first register themselves electronically with the USCIS.

It was also announced that there would be a pre-determined period for registration and applicants would only be allowed to register during that period. The USCIS is also planning to increase the number of people who would be selected for H-1B from those holding a post-graduation or higher qualification from a university or institute of higher learning in the United States, thus giving more weightage to merit.

[Read More: Changes to USA Immigration Policies]

Merit to Get more Weightage under New Rule for US Immigration

The new rule is in keeping with the original philosophy behind the H-1B visa program which was intended to enable US companies to employ international workers in occupations that require a high level of skill and application of both practical and theoretical application of specialized subjects. It is also mandated that no US citizen should have been found able and willing to fill the position which is expected to be occupied by the petitioner and sufficient proof should be provided for the same.

If in any year the USCIS gets petitions that are higher than the cap, which has been the norm for the last several years, a computer generated lottery process is used to select petitions whose H-1B visa for US immigration is processed. The new rule would infect allow USCIS to suspend on a temporary basis the process for registration which would allow the US immigration authority to complete all the required testing for the new H-1B visa registration system.

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The proposed changes to the rule would increase the probability of petitioners holding a post graduate or higher degree would be selected under the cap and the most skilled and highest grossing petitioners from the pool would be given first preference for awarding H-1B visa. Moreover the new rule could end up adding an additional 5000 or more post graduates to the list of H-1B beneficiaries over and above the existing level.

In more positive impact, shifting the registration to an electronic system would increase the cost-effectiveness as well as efficiency of the H-1B process which would make it a more user friendly experience for the petitioner and reduce wait times.

For more information on US immigration and to know your prospects to immigrate to USA or any other country reach out to our immigration experts at Global Tree