As demand for technical expertise in the United States continues to climb, the US administration has given a higher number of H-1B visas this year.
H-1B visa approval rates were 98.1 per cent in June and 97 per cent in the first three quarters of the US fiscal year, respectively, compared to roughly 84 per cent in 2018 and 2019 during the previous Donald Trump administration.
The H-1B visa is mostly for Indian IT professionals. Thousands of employees each year from countries such as India and China are hired by technical companies. The H-1B visa programme provides employers with a path to hire high-skilled workers only if they are unable to find eligible American workers.
Visa Approval Rates Are High In 2021
During the Trump administration, approval rates dropped as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began rejecting more visa applications or requesting additional supporting papers.
Last month, the agency said that it would conduct a second lottery for the next fiscal as it had not received enough applications to meet the Congressionally-mandated cap.
“There are multiple reasons for lesser RFEs (request for evidence) and a higher rate of approvals including change in the administration, the reinstatement of the deference policy and of course the ITServe decision as it pertains to IT staffing companies. The environment for legal immigration has gotten better in the past six months,”
— Nandini Nair, partner at Greenspoon Marder, a law firm.
Major Relief To H1B Visa Seekers
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated in June that it was updating its policies regarding expedited processing of applications.
Also changing the guidance regarding Requests for Evidence (RFEs) and Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs), and increasing the validity period for certain.
The applicants will now have the opportunity to correct mistakes and unintentional omissions because of the step taken by USCIS.
”We are taking action to eliminate policies that fail to promote access to the legal immigration system and will continue to make improvements that help individuals navigate the path to citizenship, and that modernise our immigration system”
–Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
Reformation Of The Visa Application Procedure
The US issues 85,000 H-1B visas per year. However, every year registrations exceed the total visas issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Last year, the USCIS received nearly 2.67 lakh registrations, with India accounting for more than 60% of them. In such instances, the USCIS used the random selection process to select the candidates.
However, at the back of COVID-19, the immigration agency had to go for a second lottery in 2020, for the first time in 30 years, as it did not get enough applications to fill the annual quota of 85,000 visas.
Even the Last month, the agency said that it would conduct a second lottery for the next fiscal as it had not received enough applications to meet the Congressionally-mandated cap.
Immigration experts have called for a reform of the visa application procedure, which will require the company to apply for visas over six months before the employee can be deployed.
“I fundamentally believe that the registration system needs to be modified or revised as it has allowed for many to game the system and take away opportunities for others…. I believe the lottery system should be completely taken away and US employers should be allowed to file anytime during the year when they have need. Obviously, we are in a labour shortage in the US and eliminating this archaic lottery system would be helpful to the US economy,”
– Nandini Nair, partner at Greenspoon Marder, a law firm.
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