'Unfortunately it will still be...': Immigration expert on Trump admin's proposed changes to H-1B lottery

As the Donald Trump administration moves a step forward to hike H-1B wages by moving to a wage-based lottery instead of a random lottery, an immigration expert weighed in on the proposed changes. Jeremy Neufeld, the immigration policy director at the Institute for Progress, said that as seniority gets priority in this wage-based selection, high skills will still take a backseat.

"Unfortunately it will still be a lottery, and weighted by seniority instead of higher-skilled occupations," Neufeld said. "An acupuncturist making $68k in Ohio (Level IV) will get 4x the chances of winning as a pediatric surgeon making $260k helping children in the Pennsylvania rustbelt (Level I). An IT worker doing tech support in Phoenix, Arizona making $95k (Level II) will get 2x as many chances as an early career computer hardware engineer at the new TSMC semiconductor fab making $130k (Level I). An HR specialist making $85k in Huntsville, Alabama (Level III) will get 1.5x the chance as an aerospace engineer down the street making $140k (Level II)," Neufeld wrote.

What is the proposed weighted H-1B lottery?

"The US Department of Homeland Security proposes to amend its regulations governing the process by which US Citizenship and Immigration Services selects H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries for filing of H-1B cap-subject petitions (or H-1B petitions for any year in which the registration requirement is suspended). DHS proposes to implement a weighted selection process that would generally favor the allocation of H-1B visas to higher skilled and higher paid aliens, while maintaining the opportunity for employers to secure H-1B workers at all wage levels to better serve the Congressional intent for the H-1B program," the DHS said.

There are four wage levels in the new proposal: Level 4 being the highest wage and level 1 being the entry level. Those who have the level 4 wage will have four chances in the lottery; those with the level 3 wage will get three chances in the lottery; those with the level 2 wage will get two chances, and those with the level 1 wage will have only one chance.