The United States Department of Homeland Security
("DHS") issued a press release on January 30, 2019, announcing
revisions to the H1-B visa program, which were made in direct
response to President Trump's April 17, 2017 "Buy American and Hire American"
Executive Order (the "Order"). As we discussed in our previous blog post about the then-proposed
changes, the final rule includes swapping the order of case
selection under the H-1B "lottery" and implementation of
a new electronic case registration and selection system, among
other technical changes.
The Order, which sought, in part, to maximize the hiring of
American workers, directed DHS and other relevant agencies to
ensure that US immigration programs "protect the interests of
United States workers in the administration of our immigration
system, including through the prevention of fraud or abuse."
It specifically instructed DHS to review the H-1B visa program to
"ensure [they] are awarded to the most-skilled
