‘Big Change’ in H1B Visa’, Green Card’, coming says US Admn
28-Aug-2025.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has said the Trump administration is planning to change the H1B programme, the most sought-after non-immigrant visa among Indian IT professionals, and also bring changes to the Green Card process.
He said on August 26, “I'm involved in changing the H1B programme. We're going to change that programme, because that's terrible”. He added that the Trump administration is also going to change the Green Card process that provides permanent residency in the US.
Howard Lutnick further said, “You know, we give green cards. The average American makes USD 75,000 a year, and the average green card recipient USD 66,000, so we're taking the bottom quartile, like, why are we doing that? That's why Donald Trump is going to change it. That's the Gold Card that's coming. And we're going to start picking the best people to come into this country. It's time for that to change,” he said.
Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H1B Visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world.
An overwhelming number of H-1B visas highly skilled professionals from India walk away with it which is Congressional mandated 65,0000 every year and another 20,000 for those who received higher education from the US.
“The current H1B visa system is a scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities, Lutnick said in a social media post. Hiring American workers should be the priority of all great American businesses. Now is the time to hire American”, he said.
H1B a ‘total scam’ says Ron DeSantis calls
The H1B has become a “total scam”, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said.
He said, “These companies’ game the system. You have some of these companies that are laying off large numbers of Americans while they're also getting new H1Bs and renewing H1Bs”.
DeSantis said that people used to say that America is getting the "cream of the crop” from all around the world through the H1B visa system.
“The reality is that's not actually what H1B are. Most of them are from one country, India. There's a cottage industry about how all that people make money off this system.”
In the current job market, young Americans are having a much tougher time in the current job market because of what's happening with AI, he said.
“So, if that's going to continue to produce dislocations, why would we be importing foreign workers when we have our own people that we need to take care of,” he said.
DeSantis added that the visas limit the H1B worker to one company.
"It's almost like a form of indenture servitude. And so, we've seen them take advantage of that time and time again," he said.
He further said, "And I just think like the overall message from the time President Trump first ran for office was we're going to put the American people first and I think that he's done that in so many ways like the border, and other things and I think it should apply to these visa programmes as well”.
