H1B Jobs Are Back: H1B Denial Rate Reduces By 93%; Infosys, TCS, Wipro Has Only 1% Denial Rate!

The Trump administration introduced a variety of stringent policies to reduce the entry of foreign nationals on American grounds.

The H-1B visa, a highly coveted visa status is among the only practical paths  for high-skilled foreign nationals, including international students, to work long-term in the United States and be given the opportunity to become employment-based immigrants and U.S. citizens.

Indian IT professionals and companies rely heavily on this visa status, the petitions of which were sharply declined under the Trump administration.

H1B Approvals On Rise, Thanks To Joe Biden?

It has been reported by a US immigration think tank NFAP, that in the quarter ending September 2020, i.e. the fourth quarter, the H-1B denial rate fell to 1.5%, from 15% in the same quarter last year.

In fact, the rejection rate for the 1st three quarters (this year) has been as high as 58%. 

Please note that the fiscal year followed by United States Citizenship and Immigration and Services (USCIS) is from October to September.

Repealing 2 Memos by US Court Spur Up Approval Rates

In a memo issued by the Trump government in 2018, it was mandatory for US employers to provide detailed contracts and itineraries for H-1B employees working at third-party sites.

The USCIS also used the memo introduced in 2010 that defined employer-employee relationships to reject petitions.

This led to rejection of many H-1B petitions.

For instance, the fresh H-1B denial rate for Infosys from October to March 2020 quarter reached 58%, as compared to 2% in the same quarter of FY15.

Similarly, Cognizant’s denial rate reached 52% in FY20, compared to 8% in FY15.

Source: NFAP

“Ten of the top 25 employers of new H-1B visa holders had denial rates that ranged from 23% to 58% during first three quarters of FY 2020, but their denial rates for H-1B petitions for initial employment dropped to between 1% to 4% in the fourth quarter of FY 2020,” according to the NFAP analysis.

As the two memos were rescinded by a US court, the rejection rates reduced in the 4th quarter, ending September 2020.

Rise in Acceptance of H-1B Petitions

The acceptance of H-1B petitions have increased in the last quarter of FY20.

Losses in federal court cases that declared administration actions to be unlawful forced Trump officials to change restrictive immigration policies and resulted in dramatic improvements in H-1B denial rates for companies, state the new analysis reported by NFAP.

Additionally, Moneycontrol has informed that Indian IT firms like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL Tech have recorded denial rates at 1%, while that for Tech Mahindra is at 0.4%.

Source: NFAP