Forty-six leading companies and business organisations in the United States, including various tech majors, have filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit challenging upcoming rule changes to H-1B visa eligibility.
The lawsuit was recently filed by the US Chamber of Commerce along with other plaintiffs including 12 organisations and universities.
The amicus brief has been filed by 46 companies and business organisations which include tech majors such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter. The list also includes Spotify, Dropbox, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and VMWare.
“These rules will stifle the ability of American companies to hire and retain global talent,” Twitter said in a statement posted to its Public Policy account.
According to the amicus brief, “These Rules will bar many foreign-born scientists, engineers, developers of emerging technology, and other highly skilled workers from obtaining an H-1B visa and as a result will make it much more difficult for amici to hire the employees they need to compete in the global economy.”
“Because the new Rules will also apply to any extension or amendment of H-1B status, amici also face the tremendous business disruption of having to terminate the employment of critical members of their workforce,” the document added.
The lawsuit challenges the ‘Strengthening the H-1B Non immigrant Visa Classification Programme’ rule by the Department of Homeland Security and the ‘Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States’ rule by the Department of Labour in particular.
The filing comes along the heels of US President Donald Trump’s proposal to do away with the computerised lottery system for H1-B visas. On Thursday, DHS issued a notification on the new system which will introduce a wage-level-based selection process.