Merit Not Luck: Trump Administration To Overhaul H1B Lottery System, Plans A ‘Skills-And-Merit’ Arrangement

The latest changes proposed by the Trump administration to overhaul the H1B system could provide relief to thousands of highly skilled Indian professions looking to work in the US, as reported by the Press Trust of India (PTI). The US is considering adopting the skills-and-merit arrangement to award temporary work visas to overseas workers. It currently uses the lottery system for the same.

According to Larry Kudlow, who is the chief economic advisor to President Trump, agreed that companies were facing difficulties in recruiting talented professionals due to the lottery system. “The president has laid this out. We need legal immigration. We need skills-based, merit-based immigration. Those are just a few of the issues. That would be terrific. We can’t seem to get it through Congress. But skills-based, and merit-based and not a family chain-based, I think they will be very useful,” he said in an interview with the reporters.

In May 2017, a top Republican lawmaker had demanded the removal of the lottery system as it did not serve the original purpose of the H1B programme to bring the “best and brightest” to the country. In September 2018, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj asked the US to take a non-discriminatory and predictable approach to the issuance of H-1B visas. It should be noted that nearly three out of every four H-1B visa holders are Indian citizens.