There will be significant number of changes in H1B visa process: US Commerce Secretary Lutnick
Washington (PTI): US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said there will be “a significant number of changes” in the H1B visa process before February 2026, when the new fee of USD 100,000 goes into effect, as he described as “just wrong” the idea of “inexpensive” tech consultants coming into the country and bringing their families.
The Trump administration this month announced a one-time fee of USD 100,000 for new H1B work visas, an order that will impact Indian professionals looking to work in the US on the temporary visas.
Standing behind US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office when the H1B proclamation was signed, Lutnick had then said that the USD 100,000 will be an annual fee for all H1B visas, including renewals and first-time applicants.
Amid widespread panic and chaos, the Trump administration clarified that the new fee requirement for H1B visas will not apply to current visa holders and is a one-time payment applicable only to new petitions.
“This procedure and process goes into effect in February of 2026, so my guess is going to be, there are going to be a significant number of changes between now and 2026,” Lutnick said Sunday in an interview with NewsNation.
Lutnick said that with the USD 100,000 fee on applications, "at least it shouldn't be overrun with these people. But I think you're going to see a real thoughtful change going forward. And that's what I expect will happen."
"There's going to be a variety of changes; they're talking about changes - how to get the lottery, should it still be a lottery? But that will all be resolved by February,” he said.
He said that “but as of right now”, there's going to be a one-time fee of USD 100,000 to get in.
“There was a lottery. The H1B is a lottery,” he said, adding that in his recent conversation with heads of two of the biggest tech companies in the world, “they said doing a lottery for skilled workers coming into America is 'bizarre'.”
Lutnick questioned why a nation should bring in skilled workers through a lottery. “That just doesn't make any sense.”
He said there is consensus that the H1B process, which was set up in 1990 and “sort of butchered along the way”, needs to change.
He said the visas are 7-10 times “oversubscribed”, 74 per cent of it is tech consulting.
“H1B visas are for tech consultants? Like, somehow, that's like important that tech consultants are onshore versus offshore. They're all in other countries anyway,” he said, adding that about four per cent of the visas were for educators and doctors.
He added that the H1B lottery needs to be “fixed" and the US should only give "highly-skilled jobs" to the "most highly-skilled people".
Lutnick said doctors and educators with high degrees should be able to come in but if companies want to hire engineers, they should employ only the highly paid ones.
“The idea of having tech consultants and trainees who are inexpensive should be eliminated. I have a strong opinion that way. I think the President's right with me on those same topics...I am completely on the view that this idea that inexpensive tech consultants should be coming into this country and bringing their families, I find it just wrong, and so it sits wrong with me,” Lutnick said.
This month, the US Department of Labour announced the launch of ‘Project Firewall’, an H1B enforcement initiative aimed at safeguarding the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers.
The initiative will ensure that employers prioritise qualified Americans when hiring workers and will hold employers accountable if they abuse the H1B visa process.
“Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H1B visas at the expense of our workforce,” US Secretary of Labour Lori Chavez-DeRemer had said in a statement. “By rooting out fraud and abuse, the Department of Labour and our federal partners will ensure that highly skilled jobs go to Americans first.”
Through Project Firewall, the department will conduct investigations of employers to maximise H1B programme compliance. To achieve this goal, the Secretary of Labour will “personally certify the initiation of investigations” for the first time in the department’s history.
Violations may result in the collection of back wages owed to affected workers, the assessment of civil money penalties, and/or debarment from future use of the H1B programme for a prescribed period of time.
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Former South Korean President Yoon receives life sentence for imposing martial law
Seoul (AP): Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison for his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.
Judge Jee Kui-youn said he found Yoon guilty of rebellion for mobilizing military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the liberal-led National Assembly, arrest politicians and establish unchecked power for a “considerable” time.
Yoon is likely to appeal the verdict.
A special prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for Yoon, saying his actions posed a threat to the country's democracy and deserved the most serious punishment available, but most analysts expect a life sentence since the poorly-planned power grab did not result in casualties.
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South Korea has not executed a death row inmate since 1997, in what is widely seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid calls for its abolition.
As Yoon arrived in court, hundreds of police officers watched closely as Yoon supporters rallied outside a judicial complex, their cries rising as the prison bus transporting him drove past. Yoon's critics gathered nearby, demanding the death penalty.
The court also convicted and sentenced several former military and police officials involved in enforcing Yoon's martial law decree, including ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who received a 30-year jail term for his central role in planning the measure and mobilizing the military.
Yoon, a staunch conservative, has defended his martial law decree as necessary to stop liberals, whom he described as “anti-state” forces, from obstructing his agenda with their legislative majority.
The decree lasted about six hours before being lifted after a quorum of lawmakers managed to break through a military blockade and unanimously voted to lift the measure.
Yoon was suspended from office on December 14, 2024, after being impeached by lawmakers and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He has been under arrest since last July while facing multiple criminal trials, with the rebellion charge carrying the most severe punishment.
Last month, Yoon was sentenced to five years in prison for resisting arrest, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring the measure.
The Seoul Central Court has also convicted two of Yoon's Cabinet members in other cases. That includes Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who received a 23-year prison sentence for attempting to legitimize the decree by forcing it through a Cabinet Council meeting, falsifying records and lying under oath. Han has appealed the verdict.
