Trump Moves to Realign Visa Allotments Key to Tech Outsourcing

American president Donald Trump took aim at information-technology outsourcing companies as he ordered a review of H-1B visa programs to favor more skilled and highly paid applicants, according to Bloomberg.

Trump blasted “widespread abuse“ of the visas for skilled foreign workers before signing an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways of reorienting the program. “Right now, H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery and that’s wrong,“ said Trump. “Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest paid“ and should “never, ever be used to replace Americans.“

An administration official who briefed reporters in advance named Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Mphasis as examples of companies that would likely have fewer visas approved as the administration’s changes are adopted. Outsourcing companies tend to use the visas to hire less-skilled workers at much lower rates of pay. To the extent any changes in the program cut back on the use of the visas by India-based IT companies, it would benefit Silicon Valley giants that say they’d like to hire more employees on H-1B visas.

Employers seeking H-1B visas for 2018 submitted 199,000 applications this year, far exceeding the 85,000 available visas, which are currently distributed by lottery, according to figures released by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But the number of applications for the lottery, conducted earlier this month, declined from 236,000 last year, possibly reflecting concern about new restrictions.