The United States’ immigration policy has constantly struggled to balance two competing goals — bringing in foreign workers to help the economy grow versus protecting American workers. A short overview of USA’s constantly-shifting immigration policy, leading up to the creation of the H-1B visa programme in 1990, is testament to the fact.
How the US immigration policy evolved
More than 10 million Irish, German, English and other European immigrants arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1880. These immigrants were mostly from northern and western Europe, although a smaller number also came from Asia beginning in the 1850s.
According to a 2000 paper by The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies,
University of California, San Diego, rapid industrialization in the second half of the 19th century led big businesses to encourage low-wage immigrant labour. However, pressure from local labor movements, public prejudice also led to passage of the first restrictive laws — such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Laws.
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The Congress passed the Contract Labor Laws of 1885 and 1887 to prevent companies from bringing cheap foreign labour to displace US workers. However, big business lobbied successfully for exemptions that permitted the entry of foreign domestic servants, artists, lecturers and other skilled workers.
Impact of the World Wars
{{/usCountry}}The Congress passed the Contract Labor Laws of 1885 and 1887 to prevent companies from bringing cheap foreign labour to displace US workers. However, big business lobbied successfully for exemptions that permitted the entry of foreign domestic servants, artists, lecturers and other skilled workers.
Impact of the World Wars
{{/usCountry}}World War I sparked heightened fear and suspicion toward foreigners, driving Congress to pass restrictive immigration laws.
Fears of massive European migration following the war led to the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and the 1924 National Origins Act. These laws set strict caps on overall immigration and used national origin quotas to favor immigrants from Northern and Western Europe while sharply limiting those from Southern and Eastern Europe.
Then, the Immigration Act of 1924 officially defined "immigrants" vs. "nonimmigrants," creating the legal framework for foreign nationals entering the country on a temporary, fixed-term basis rather than for permanent residence.
World War II led to labour shortages in the United States, forcing the country to soften its immigration policies.
To fill severe labor shortages caused by the war, the U.S. launched the Bracero program in 1942 to bring in seasonal contract workers from Mexico for agriculture and railroads. This program continued long after the war until 1964.
The Congress also passed a 1944 law allowing companies to import temporary workers from other Western Hemisphere countries to support the war effort.
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The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act
The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act set the stage for the H-1B visa programme through which thousands of Indians live and work legally in the US today.
This law eliminated total race-based bans on immigration and naturalization, allowing temporary workers during labour shortages.
To bring in these skilled individuals, the law created the H-1 visa—the precursor to today's H-1B visa. It was meant for foreign workers of "distinguished merit and ability" who were coming temporarily to perform specialized work without intending to move to the US permanently.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the national origin quota system and shifted US priority toward family reunification, allocating 80% of Eastern Hemisphere visas to family members. Only 20% were set aside for occupational/employment visas.
The creation of the H-1B visa programme
By the late 1980s, lawmakers like Senators Ted Kennedy and Alan Simpson argued that the 1965 law’s heavy emphasis on family reunification was excluding highly skilled professionals and leaving US businesses short of specialized talent. This push led directly to the Immigration Act of 1990, which overhauled legal immigration and established the modern H-1B framework.
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President George HW Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 into law on November 20, 1990.
The H-1 visa was split into the H-1A visa for nurses, and the H-1B visa for workers in specialty occupations.
What is the H-1B programme?
As per the US government’s H-1B Employer Data Hub, the H-1B program lets US employers hire foreign workers for a limited time. The jobs must need highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific field, or its equivalent.
Key elements of the 1990 H-1B programme
The 1990 act introduced an annual limit of 65,000 nonimmigrant visas per year specifically for H-1B "specialty occupations".
It required applicants to hold at least a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in their specific field. The programme set a maximum stay limit of six years for H-1B visa holders.
The act required employers to pay H-1B employees the prevailing wage to prevent foreigners from replacing American workers.
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