The United States on Friday announced it had received enough petitions for H-1B visas for the congressionally mandated annual cap of 65,000 for 2020, the first under new rules that favour foreigners with advanced degrees from US colleges and might disadvantage Indians with Indian degrees.

US citizenship and immigration services, which runs the visa programme, said in a statement it has “received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap for fiscal year 2020”. And that it will next determine “if we have received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap”.

The H-1B programme has come under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration which believes, agreeing with long-time critics, these visas have been used to hire foreigners at the cost of Americans, to displace local workers. And in line with President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” policy, rules have been introduced and changed to make it harder to qualify, costlier and less welcoming.

The new rule favoring foreigners with US degrees, which was announced in January, is expected to boost their numbers by an estimated 16%, or 5,340 workers. “US employers seeking to employ foreign workers with a US master’s or higher degree will have a greater chance of selection in the H-1B lottery in years of excess demand for new H-1B visas,” USCIS head Lee Francis Cissna had then said.