The proposed High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act of 2017 aims to reform the H-1B visa application process by imposing restrictions on recruitment and retention of talent, particularly for foreign workers with specialized skills. The current system allows employers to hire temporary workers from abroad, but critics argue that this leads to outsourcing American jobs at lower salaries. The bill would replace the lottery system with a merit-based system based on market-value pay allocation and change the Dependent Employer exemption in two ways: eliminating the education exemption and raising the prevailing wage exemption threshold from $60,000 to $130,000. This could lead to a significant decrease in H-1B Dependent Employer visas and an increase in H-1B Independent Employer applications. The proposed reforms would also impact the tech industry, potentially resulting in a 40% decrease in international student applications to study at American universities and affecting companies such as Cognizant Technology Solutions and Deloitte Consulting. The changes could lead to significant economic disruption, with nearly all applicants falling within a 100% of level-three wages, making it difficult for companies to retain current workers without reallocating excess revenue.