DHS Overhauls Major US Visa Program

Homeland Security officials said the H-1B visa program needed modernizing.

Immigrants wait for interviews at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Queens office in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City on May 30, 2013. John Moore/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a rule change on who can apply for a H-1B work visa, a key U.S. visa program that employs foreign workers in specialty occupations generally requiring a college degree.

A number of major U.S. technology companies use H-1B visas to find people to work jobs that are deemed hard to fill, namely in science, technology, engineering, and math.