US permits some immigrants to resubmit applications for H-1B visa

New Delhi: A federal US body has reportedly allowed some immigrant workers, who have missed the chances due to technical reasons, to resubmit their applications for the H-1B visa, the most sought-after nonimmigrant visa among Indian IT professionals.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), such re-submission of applications is for those whose applications have been rejected or administratively closed solely because the requested start date was after October 1, 2020.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has now said that such petitions must be re-submitted before October 1, 2021, and the petition will be considered to have been filed on the original receipt date.

H-1B visa, the most sought-after nonimmigrant visa among Indian IT professionals allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Several technology companies depend on the H-1B visa to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Earlier in 2020, USCIS had implemented an electronic registration process for the H-1B cap. where prospective petitioners including beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must first electronically register and pay the USD 10 H-1B registration fee for each beneficiary.

However, the USCIS has now said that the electronic registration process has streamlined processing by reducing paperwork and data exchange and provided overall cost savings to employers seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions.

According to USCIS, for fiscal 2021, the number of petitions filed during the initial filing period was below the number projected as needed to reach the numerical allocations.

This discrepancy was likely related to multiple factors, including the economic, political, and public health uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the fact that FY 2021 was the first year that we implemented the electronic registration process.

"Therefore, in August 2020, we selected additional registrations that were held in reserve. The filing period for registrations selected in August ended on November 16, 2020," it said.

In its statement, the USCIS added that some petitioners indicated a start date after October 1, 2020. And it had to reject or administratively close those petitions because they were based on registrations submitted during the initial registration period but indicated a start date after October 1, 2020.

Upon reconsideration, USCIS came to the conclusion that regulations were not required to reject or administratively close those petitions.