H-1B visa approvals goes up in this current Q3 in USA

Whatever happened between the US President Donald Trump and H-1B visa lately has been a spectacle in hostility. The Trump administration suspended all kinds of non-immigrant visas including H-1B, J-1, and L-1 till December 31, 2020, in June 2020. That’s the point we will break some more news about H-1B visa approvals from.

The US immigration agency considers October to September as a financial year. So, it was in the third quarter of the present fiscal year that Trump’s decision to suspend visas citing loss of jobs to Americans happened.

The first 2 quarters had registered 83.4% (Q1) and 87.1% (Q2) in visa approval rates. The approvals are for applications filed in the quarters before and H-1B visas extended for a 3-year term a second time.

In the third quarter of the current financial year, it was seen that 95.5% of the total H-1B visa applications filed were approved. This is the highest number of approvals ever since Donald Trump became the President of the USA.

Comparing with visa approval rates in the fiscal year 2016, when the average approval rate was 94%, has come down to 85% in the fiscal year 2018 and 2019. The data collected by the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) reveals this.

Now, there’s a surge in visa approvals yet again. There are higher approval rates with less RFE (Request for Evidence) compared to the years before. This is a result of multiple factors like:

• The COVID-19 pandemic
• Decrease in filings
• USCIS losing money
• Multiple wins of litigation

An RFE is a request as per procedure that the USCIS makes on H-1B visa applicants. Such a request may be anything ranging from giving proof of specialty occupation to establishing an employer-employee relationship. Only when these concerns are addressed by the applicant, H-1B visa is granted to that person.

The count of applications approved with RFE decreased significantly to 20%. It was 40% and 35.8% respectively in the first 2 quarters. This was in part due to the litigation led by ITServe Alliance, a US IT body against the USCIS. The litigation was around workers posted at the client or third-party locations.

Now about the number of applications approved after RFE was issued. This number of applications increased from 68% to over 82% in the first 2 quarters.

If you look at figures related to L-1visa issuance, the current quarter had a higher percentage at 77.4%.

So, the bottom line is that when it comes to non-immigrant visa approvals, there has been a good deal of improvement in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to USA, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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