H1B Visa: Larry Kudlow Says H1B Visa Policy Is Work In Progress

The White House, on Thursday, said that Donald Trump led administration is currently working on reforming the H1B visa programme. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that US companies use to hire foreign workers for jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise.

During an interaction with media reporters, Larry Kudlow, who is the chief economic advisor to the US President, admitted that companies currently are having difficulties in hiring people on H1B visas that mainly attracts talented foreign professionals, reported NDTV.

“The president has laid this out. We need legal immigration. We need skills-based, merit-based immigration,” Kudlow said adding, “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.”

Kudlow said the US government has initiated work of analyzing H1B visa policy.

“We’re looking at it. It’s a work in progress,” he said.

He added that other than H1 B visa, the government is also looking at other different kinds of visas and has proposed to get rid of the lottery system for visas. It remains unconfirmed if Kudlow was talking about H-1B visas’ lottery or diversity visas.

When asked if changes in the H-1B visas mean an increase in the number of visas to be allotted, Kudlow replied, “No.”

Currently, the US Congress has made a provision of allotting 65,000 H-1B visas per annum to people from different countries. An additional 20,000 H-1B visas have been reserved for those who have completed higher education from the US in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

“I’m saying I don’t want to predict. I’m just saying we’re looking at it. It’s a work in progress and if we could start getting a serious conversation on immigration reform with the Congress, then we’ll say,” he added.