The U.S. government is planning to introduce reforms in the H-1B visa programs so that the hiring of foreign national professionals can be made fully skill and merit-based. To lead in this direction, the Trump administration wants to end the lottery system for visas.
The Chief Economic Advisor to President Donald Trump, Larry Kudlow said these things in an interaction with reporters on Nov.1.
While talking to journalists, Kudlow agreed to the fact that H-1B bring talented professionals to the United States and at present companies are facing problems in hiring foreign nationals on H-1B visas, reported PTI.
He stressed that America needs an immigration policy that is purely based on merit and skills. However, it was not clear if the thoughts to change in lottery system are related to H-1B visas or others.
The news agency quoted him as saying, “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 further said that H-1B visas are under consideration of the administration for reforms. Supporting Trump’s thoughts on making H-1B visas merit-based, he said that these changes could have been done many years ago.
He said, “The thrust of that is merit, skills-based, which is going to be very significant change. We should’ve done it years ago. The president is absolutely right (on this),” added the report.
President Trump has been very vocal about making the immigration system of the country merit based. Even in his first State of Union address he had called for merit-based immigration and to end the visa lottery system.
Kudlow told the press that other than H-1B visas, many other visas are under consideration for the reforms. However, he answered in negative when asked about the possibility of an increase in the number of H-1B visas.