Businesses located in California and across the nation have experienced higher denial rates for H-1B visa applicants over the last year or so. These visas allow skilled workers from other countries the opportunity to live and work in the United States. Trump Administration policies are viewed by many as the reason for the high rate of denials.
Immigration law professionals cite a recent report to demonstrate the fact the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services has shown no favor to major companies regarding H-1B applications. The report considered data from Immigration Services regarding the initial H-1B petitions used to secure visas for new hires.
A report uncovered a few interesting facts regarding the 25 companies that received the most approvals for H-1B initial hires in 2019. First, each of the 25 companies encountered higher denial rates over the second quarter of the fiscal year 2020 than they did five years before in 2015. The denial rates for 20 of these companies increased by more than 10%.
Immigration analysts say that the highest rate of denials happened for applicants wishing to work for companies in the information technology industry. These denial rates are more than 20% higher over the same five-year period for 10 of the largest companies that deliver information technology services. These numbers indicate to some analysts that the USCIS has adopted a different set of standards for evaluating applications from workers in the IT industry.
Overall denial rates for H-1B visa applications encountered by the top 25 companies hiring foreign professionals were from 1 to 5% in 2015. For the first two quarters of 2020, H-1B visa denial rates for these companies ranged from 15 to 59%. In 2015, companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon all encountered denial rates for H-1B visa applicants of 1%. In 2020, the H-1B denial rates for these companies were 15, 15 and 12%, respectively.
The immigration process in the United States entails complex regulations that are always subject to change. Immigrants with questions regarding their status or the immigration process as a whole may find the answers they need by speaking with an attorney.