US to resume premium processing of H-1B visa applications

H-1B visa is popular among Indian IT professionals who corner more than 70% of the 85,000 visas that the US grants every year.

The United States on Friday announced that premium processing of applications for H-1B visa in all categories subject to Congress-mandated caps will resume on Monday after it was suspended temporarily to clear the backlog of applications for the work visas popular among Indian IT professionals.

Premium processing of H-1B visa applications was suspended in August 2018.(Representative Photo)

Premium procession allows applicants, US employers, to seek fast-tracked adjudication of their application, within 15 days, against payment of a fee. It allows applicants to jump the queue by months, but it only guarantees early decision and not the visa itself.

The US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS) announced in a statement it “will resume premium processing on Monday, Jan. 28, for all fiscal year (FY) 2019 H-1B cap petitions, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption (the ‘master’s cap’). Petitioners who have received requests for evidence (RFEs) for pending FY 2019 cap petitions should include their RFE response with any request for premium processing they may submit.”

The US grants 85,000 visas every year under the H-1B programme to allow US companies to hire foreign professionals for high skilled jobs to make good the shortage of local hands. Indians have usually cornered more than 70% of these visas for foreigners hired mostly by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others.

A smaller number are hired by Indian outsourcing giants such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro, which have been at the receiving end of the backlash against the programme which critics say is being abused to displace local workers

The Trump administration, which is overhauling the programme to prevent its alleged misuse, had suspended premium processing within month of the President taking office in 2017, and it has since resumed it in fits and starts.