On January 8, 2021, the administration finalized a proposed rule, making no changes, that will prioritize the processing of H-1B cap subject petitions based on how much the positions pay.
The administration received more than 1400 comments on the proposed rule by the December 2nd comment deadline, the vast majority (including MeBIC’s) in opposition for the reasons discussed here. In hardly more than a month, the administration has finalized the rule, supposedly after giving due consideration to all of the comments received. Instead, it appears that the administration gave undue importance to the few isolated comments supporting the rule, and glibly dismissed the multitude of comments opposing it.
Unless the federal courts enjoin the rule before then, it will take effect on March 9, 2021. Although the Biden Administration can reverse the rule, it will have to go through the formal rulemaking process to do so, which will take months, if not a year.