New H-1B visa rules upgrade some lottery applicants — and squeeze out others
Big Tech is emerging a winner in the new H-1B system, while early-stage startups could lose out. Matthias Balk/nirat/Getty/Getty Images Winning the H-1B visa lottery was always a long shot. Trump's new $100,000 fee and a soon-to-be-finalized, wage-based rule change who wins. International students and early-stage startups face reduced chances under the new H-1B system. The H-1B visa has always created winners and losers. Every spring, the government runs a lottery for 110,000 new visas. Last fiscal year, nearly half a million people put their names in. This fall, the Trump administration set new rules in motion that immigration lawyers say will upgrade some foreign nationals in the lottery, while others will get squeezed out. Trump's overhaul of the H-1B visa program slaps a $100,000 fee on new petitions for workers living abroad, and includes a proposal that would tilt the lottery in favor of the highest-paid applicants . Instead of giving every applicant a singl...
