Among a bunch of new changes that the Donald Trump administration is bringing to the H-1B visa program, the Department of Homeland Security also wants to provide greater scrutiny of third-party placements. It is a common practice in the H-1B visa program that a company hires a foreign worker on this visa program to perform jobs for another company. Such companies are also called IT bodyshops. These companies manage the payroll of the H-1B visa holders, and they handle the immigration filings of these visa holders while these visa holders work for another company. The end client, the company for which the H-1B visa holders work, basically outsources all the foreign hiring-related work to these third-party companies.This system breeds a lot of malpractice, as sometimes these staffing companies stop salaries and threaten the visa holders.The DHS said it would revise the eligibility for cap exemptions.Once the proposal is published in the Federal Register, DHS will accept public comments for 30 or 60 days.
Why so much attention on H-1B and no attention to H2B
The H-1B visa program has dominated headlines in the second Trump administration so far. While Donald Trump promised before the election that he would staple Green Card to the degrees of foreign students, the administration took one step after another to make it difficult for foreign students to come to the US to study, and then start working and eventually to join the US workforce. The administration brought new rules at every step, leading to questions as to why the administration is only concentrating on H-1B and not H-2B.H-2B is a work visa that allows employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform non-agricultural labor or services in the US. These visa workers can be employed for housekeeping, janitors, concierges, tree trimmers, irrigation labor, construction workers, etc. No degree is required.“Why is the Trump administration actually increasing the number of H-2B visas? No fees, no controversy? These are for lower skilled workers who do take jobs away and do nothing for competitiveness… only cheap labor,” Indian-American investor Vivek Wadhwa asked.Immigration commentator James Blunt said the administration is making it easier to import temporary labor but not high-skilled people who would innovate, build companies, and pay taxes. “We’re making it easier to import temporary labor while making it brutally expensive to retain highly skilled people who could spend decades working, paying taxes, innovating and building companies in America. That’s the economic stupidity I’m pointing out,” Blunt said.