Executives are using a 1990 law to import another 85,000 mixed skill, lottery picked, contract worker, foreign graduates for U.S. white collar jobs — despite high unemployment among the nation’s young college grads.
The 2025 inflow was announced Friday by an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year 2026.”
But the same agency also announced on Thursday it is drafting a regulation to change how companies import the H-1B workers.
The cryptic announcement merely said: “Weighted Selection Process for Registrants and Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions.” The announcement did not provide a schedule or a description of the draft regulation, but the rules may match the short-lived reforms set by President Donald Trump’s deputies in 2021.
The new regulation “is a good idea,” said Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, which advocates for U.S. professionals. For example, a Trump-style regulation that allocates visas to companies offering higher pay would “make it less predatory towards more ordinary tech workers and [to new] graduates entering STEM fields,” he said.