‘Dramatic Increase’ in Number of H-1B Visas Being Held Up: Employers Group Claims

There has been a significant increase in the number of H1B visas being held up, an alliance of American employers representing Amazon, Google, Intel, Deloitte, and other major companies told in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The coalition named “Compete America” points out that the increase in the number of H-1B visas being held up by the country’s immigration organization has been significant and also alleged USCIS of “acting outside of its own regulations.”

The letter, which was addressed to Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, L. Francis, Cissna Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, George Fishman Deputy General Counsel of U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Craig Symons, Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, urges the council members to “reevaluate the Trump administration’s unprecedented use of sub-regulatory actions to change policy governing the high-skilled immigration system.”

The letter says that the coalition has observed several inconsistencies which may occur with the new regulations of H-1B visas, issued by the USCIS.

The H-1B is one of the most sought visas which lets U.S. companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers to work for the company. Indians are one of the highest applicants of H-1B visa, an earlier report said.

The letter, talking about the trouble that H-1B visa holders faced while going through a number of H-1B visa rule variations, stated, “We have observed three changes in H-1B adjudication practices under the current administration that seem to permeate most of the increased H-1B adjudication inconsistencies experienced by employers. Individuals who are in long green card backlogs and have held valid H-1B status for a decade or longer now subject to ambiguity and, consequently, possible denials, necessitating they depart the country and abandon their quest for lawful permanent resident status.”

Further the letter points out that under the new regulations, “An employer requesting an extension of H-1B status for a foreign-born engineer that has held H-1B status with that employer in the same position for five years might receive a denial without the benefit of an RFE because the agency no longer has to provide deference to its prior decisions or afford the petitioner an opportunity to provide evidence if the adjudicator believes that the agency’s current view on H-1B specialty occupation disqualifies the beneficiary.”

On the other hand, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination Chris Liddell said that the president wants to refurbish old H-1B policies to attract more highly skilled foreign workers, Washington Post reported.