How to handle your H-1B visa skilled workers under next Trump term

Companies using the H-1B visa program to hire skilled workers from abroad should prepare for an application process that takes longer and costs more, along with site visits and heavier regulation of the program, according to an attorney specializing in employer-based immigration.

Having campaigned on an immigration-heavy platform, pledging significant changes, president-elect Donald Trump has discussed deporting millions of undocumented people. 

However, legal immigration is also expected to be affected and many employers are bracing for potential disruptions in the H-1B program, which offers 85,000 visas annually to highly educated workers with specialized skills. 

Most of the employees are from India and China, many of them engineers hired by large technology companies after they complete their university studies in the U.S. The H-1B visa is for three years but can be renewed.

A Biden administration modernization of the H-1B rules, designed to increase the program’s efficiency, took effect Jan. 17. The changes were designed to make the 35-year-old worker program more flexible for employers, and harder to change dramatically by administration. Biden’s modernization also gave the executive branch more oversight tools to monitor H-1B compliance.

“The modernization rule was largely put in place to codify a lot of the areas that the first Trump administration had targeted and tried to use ex…