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The Trump administration is changing how H-1B work visas are awarded.
Via U.S. State Department
With the stated goal of “protecting American workers,” the Trump administration has imposed a new visa process that will affect thousands of foreign nationals.
The new system will affect H-1B visa applications for professionals, which are capped annually at 65,000 visas, with an additional 20,000 reserved for workers holding advanced degrees from U.S. institutions.
According to USCIS, the change modifies the rules governing visa selection to prioritize applicants who are “more highly skilled and higher paid,” in an effort to better protect wages, working conditions, and opportunities for U.S. workers.
The policy replaces the current random lottery with a selection process that gives greater weight to skills and salary levels. “The existing random selection process was exploited and abused by U.S. employers seeking to hire foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragresser.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also released a statement Tuesday outlining changes to the application process under the widely used H-1B work visa program.
The measure was announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a “final rule” published in the Federal Register. The final rule is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to H-1B visa registrations subject to the annual cap for fiscal year 2027, the agency said.
The change is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to tighten oversight of work visa programs. Through an executive order, the president previously raised the fee for sponsoring an H-1B visa to $100,000, up from about $5,000 or less.
The move also comes amid renewed scrutiny of other immigration programs, including the Diversity Visa Program, which was recently suspended following a shooting at Brown University in which a Portuguese national was named as the primary suspect.
Trump had previously sought to end the so-called “visa lottery” program during his first term in 2017.
The Diversity Visa Program allows thousands of applicants from countries with low immigration rates to the United States to legally enter the country and obtain permanent residency if they meet eligibility requirements.
This story was originally published December 27, 2025 at 8:44 PM.
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Maykel Gonzalez
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