A California federal court has blocked a Trump-era rule that revised the H-1B visa selection process from a random lottery to one that prioritizes higher wage earners, a rule that the Biden Administration was prepared to allow to go into effect on December 31, 2021. The court found the rule was unenforceable because the acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had been unlawfully appointed at the time the rule was approved.
The rule, titled “Modification of Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking To File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions,” was issued on January 8, 2021, and initially was set to go into effect on March 9, 2021. The effective date was subsequently pushed back by the Biden Administration until December 31, 2021, to allow for further review. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS), the DHS agency that administers the H-1B program, recently signaled that it intended to move forward with the wage-based selection rule by year’s end when it issued a request for public comment on proposed revisions to the H-1B Registration Tool to implement the new wage-based selection process.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.