H-1B visa: Despite more scrutiny, approvals increase for first time in four years

Data from USCIS shows that requests for evidence (RFEs) were asked for in 40.2% of cases as compared to just 22.3% in 2015 and 38% last year.
H-1B visa: Despite more scrutiny, approvals increase for first time in four years
H-1B visa: Despite more scrutiny, approvals increase for first time in four years
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In what could be seen as a relief to Indians, since 2015, approvals of H-1B visas has seen an uptick in 2019 up to September 30, albeit by only 0.3% over last year.

In 2015, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved 2.88 lakh applications (95.7%), which fell consistently over the years, with 3.35 lakh (84.5%) being approved in 2018. However, for the fiscal year of 2019, the figure touched 3.89 lakh (84.8%).

According to government statistics, Indians are the biggest beneficiaries of H1-B visas. Last year, 76% of the total visas issued went to professionals from India.

However, there has been increased scrutiny since 2015, which is reflected in the number of requests for evidence (RFEs) by the USCIS. RFE usually means that more questions are being asked when visa extensions are sought.

As per data from USCIS, approval rates after RFEs have dropped from 95.7% in 2015 to 61.5% in the first three months of this year.

The latest data shows that RFEs were asked for in 40.2% of cases as compared to just 22.3% in 2015 and 38% last year. And approval rates following RFEs too, have fallen significantly from 83.2% in 2015 to 65.4% in 2019. In 2018, this number stood at 62.4%, showing an uptick over last year.

An RFE is usually to ascertain if the employee requesting for an extension of their H-1B is in a specialty occupation, to know where the employer will be working during the tenure of their visa and to ensure that the employee is indeed working for the sponsoring employer.

According to a report released in March 2019 by the Centre for Immigration Studies (CIS), based on statistics from USCIS, in terms of companies that apply for H-1B visas, large firms such as Cognizant, TCS and Infosys – which outsource workers to other companies -- are much more likely to run into denials as compared to US-based tech firms such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft that employ foreign workers directly. 

Despite increased scrutiny and more difficult approval rates, the number of H-1B applicant has been on the rise consistently. While 368,148 applications were received in 2015, this has increased to 420,617 in 2019, up to September 30. In total, from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2019, a total of 2,009,251 H-1B applications were received.

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