JD Vance says US welcomes elite foreign talent but opposes H-1B visas replacing American workers

US VicePresident JD Vance said on Thursday that the Trump administration wants to attract exceptional foreign talent including people like Elon Musk but will not allow immigration programmes to be used to replace American workers with lowerpaid employees from overseasVance said the United States would continue welcoming foreigners with extraordinary skills and abilities but added that the H1B visa programme had moved away from its original purposeWe want a lot of other people to come into the United States of America if they have truly elite specialised skills he told reporters during a press conference on visa fraudHis remarks came in response to a question about Musk who had studied in the United States and was accepted at Stanford University before building his business empireA reporter asked how the administration could identify the next Musk while restricting opportunities for foreign workers and researchersVance said immigration authorities should apply two tests when considering foreign professionalsThe first he said was whether the applicant would fill a position that could not be filled by an American workerThe second was whether the individual possessed exceptional abilitiesAre they truly bringing in a special set of skills and abilities and work ethic and competence he askedVance said the administration was not opposed to foreign professionals contributing to American innovation and economic growthHe cited Musk and AMD chief executive Lisa Su as examples of people whose contributions demonstrated the value of exceptional international talentHowever he added that many employers were using immigration programmes to recruit foreign workers for jobs that Americans could performUnfortunately what we see with most H1Bs is that youre taking somebody Im sure in most cases a decent human being and theyre using them to replace an American middleclass worker Vance saidThe VicePresident also defended the administrations decision to impose an additional fee on H1B applicationsHe said that companies seeking genuinely exceptional workers should be willing to pay more to recruit themIf youre actually bringing a truly elite geniuslevel superspecialised person into the United States of America youre gonna be willing to pay a little bit extra to bring that person into the into your company Vance addedHe said that the higher cost would discourage employers seeking foreign workers primarily to reduce wagesThe H1B programme allows American employers to hire foreign professionals in specialised occupations including technology engineering and scientific research Employers must meet applicable eligibility and wage requirementsThe programme is particularly significant for Indian professionals who have historically accounted for a large share of H1B visa recipientsChanges in the administrations approach to eligibility and recruitment could therefore have important implications for Indian technology workers seeking employment in the United StatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever