Administration Announces Changes to H-1B Visa Program

This week, the Trump Administration announced changes to the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for specialty occupation positions. Many school districts use this program to fill critical vacancies, especially in rural areas where staff shortages are more acute.

Two changes were announced:

1. The Administration released a proclamation will require employers to pay $100,000 per petition to be considered. This will only impact new petitions after the effective date of September 21, 2025. Petitions or applications submitted prior to the date are exempt. The proclamation provides that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may make exceptions to this rule—by individual, company or industry—if the “H-1B specialty occupation workers is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.” AESA is working to get K-12 education as an exception.
2. DHS issued a proposed rule to create a weighted selection process that would generally favor the allocation of H-1B visas to higher skilled and higher paid individuals. Every year, the program petitions exceed the cap of 65,000 workers. To address this, DHS uses a lottery system to provide approvals. This proposed rule, if implemented, would create wage levels and enter petitions with higher wage levels into the selection pool more than once on a sliding scale (i.e. wage level IV would be entered into the selection pool four times, wage level III would be entered into the selection pool three times and so on). Since teacher pay is relatively low in comparison to other employers who participate in this program, such as tech companies, this could further hurt school districts’ chances in being selected and granted a petition. Once the proposed rule is entered into the Federal register, it will be open for public comment for 30 days. AESA will submit comments with recommendations on support school districts through this program.