H-1B visa extension applications will be treated as fresh cases and will draw more scrutiny and questions.
The measure released Tuesday makes permanent an interim final rule DHS issued last year doing away with a 540-day automatic extension period adopted under the Biden administration. The final rule will take effect after it’s published in the Federal Register on October 14 with a 30-day public comment period. Because of processing delays at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the extension window was designed to ensure immigrant workers aren’t pushed out of jobs.
The agency said the change, which affects asylum seekers as well as spouses of H-1B specialty occupation workers, would allow for more frequent vetting of applicants, Bloomberg reported. Again a new rule dropped from the Department of Homeland Security that will concern H-1B visa holders. But the scope of the new rule will be far greater than just H-1Bs. It will impact anyone with a work authorization in the US as the DHS issued a rule eliminating a grace period for immigrants whose work authorization expires while renewal applications are still pending.
As of June 30, more than 432,000 work permit renewal applications were pending at USCIS for six months, including more than 91,000 for more than a year and a half. Foreign workers aren’t eligible to re-up the documents until 180 days before their expiration date, the Bloomberg report said. A group of H-4 visa holders sued DHS in January, arguing the policy change violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
A California judge last month enjoined the interim final rule for those plaintiffs, finding it didn’t follow procedural requirements or acknowledge the reliance interests of plaintiffs, the report added. Extensions of work authorizations of H-1Bs and H-4s now do not attract the same scrutiny as these people have already been working and if they are applying for an extension with the same employers and the same job, the USCIS does not treat it as a fresh case but now it will. This means there will be more denials, more documentation, more RFEs. USCIS could reexamine whether the employee qualifies for the position and whether the job meets H-1B requirements. Employers and employees may face additional requests for evidence and documentation. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.