Premium H-1B visa processing to see delay

Officials with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicated that the agency will temporarily delay the ability to fast-track certain H-1B applications this year, according to multiple lawyers. The move means some employers may not learn as quickly whether they can staff a position with a foreign worker.

Agency officials discussed this move in a teleconference on Tuesday called the National Stakeholder Engagement on the H-1B Cap, according to the lawyers, who listened in on the meeting.

H-1B visas are heavily used by Bay Area technology firms to fill engineering positions. More than 15 percent of Facebook’s U.S. employees held the H-1B visa in 2016, for example, according to a Reuters analysis.

This delay would only apply to H-1B applications from for-profit companies, which are subject to an annual cap of 85,000 visas, according to Sharon Barney, an immigration lawyer at Leech

Tishman who listened to Wednesday’s conference.

The immigration agency said Tuesday that it has not announced plans to suspend premium processing, as it did last year for several months. However, it did not deny that visa processing may be delayed. It’s not uncommon for the agency to delay premium processing for a few weeks a year to deal with the influx of applications, though a full-on suspension — in which the agency declines to accept applications altogether — is less common.

It is not clear when the delay will take effect, but it is expected to happen after the annual lottery for H-1B visas. It is unclear whether the delay will last just a few weeks after the lottery opens April 2, or if it could stretch longer.

The immigration agency often receives far more applications than there are available visas, so 85,000 applications from for-profit companies are randomly selected through a lottery each year that is held during the first week of April. This year’s lottery winners would be eligible for work in fiscal 2019. But workers whose prospective employers win the lottery must go through additional evaluation from the immigration agency before they are cleared to work in the U.S. — and that is where the issue of faster or slower processing comes in.

A spokeswoman for the agency said it will notify the public when processing will begin for fast-tracked petitions after the lottery, though she did not specify a date.

Premium processing was suspended for several months last year. That impacted some employers that had become accustomed to paying the $1,225 fee to receive a response in 15 days. Rapid processing is valued in Silicon Valley, where tech companies sometimes hold off on projects or other ventures until they know whether they will have enough people to execute them.

Immigration officials often delay premium processing for a few weeks each year so they can deal with the influx of applications. But a six-month suspension last year was the longest experts had seen, and it heightened visa hopefuls’ angst. The option was eventually restored for for-profit companies in September, several months later.

While there have been no legislative changes to the H-1B program, companies, lawyers and foreigners are bracing for more scrutiny on applications this year. Approval rates for H-1B applications dipped significantly last year after the government asked more questions — far more than lawyers shepherding the applications had experienced before.