Trump Administration Plans to Change Selection Process for H-1B High-Skilled Workers and Naturalization Exams

In a recent interview with the New York Times, published on July 25^th the new director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Joseph Edlow told reporters that the agency is planning sweeping changes to the way the agency awards visas for H-1B high-skilled workers in specialty occupations.

Under current provisions, USCIS conducts a random lottery to select enough applicants to fill the government’s annual H-1B visa quota of 85,000 visas. But that may all soon change.

As we reported last week, the government has been quietly advancing efforts to reform the H-1B visa selection process. On Thursday last week, the Department of Homeland Security submitted a proposed rule—RIN 1615-AD01, titled “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions” aimed at significantly restructuring the selection system for cap-subject H-1B specialty occupation visas. The proposal is now under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

It has not yet been made public, but once approved, the government is required to publish the proposed rule in the Federal Register for public comment as part of the formal rulemaking process.

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow confirmed that changes are underway telling reporters that the H-1B program “should favor companies that plan to pay foreign workers higher wages,” adding “I really do think that the way H-1B needs to be used…. is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, U.S. economy and U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.”

He also stated that the agency intends to prioritize immigrants who come to the United States to support economic agendas and serve the national interest.

Turning to naturalization, Edlow said the agency is also planning to make changes to the naturalization examination to make it more rigorous.

As it stands, immigrants are required to study 100 civics questions and must answer at least six out of 10 correctly to pass the civics component of the examination. During the first Trump administration, the agency increased the number of questions and required applicants to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly.

Mr. Edlow said the agency plans to return to a version of that test in the near future.

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This is a developing story.

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