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In a move that holds out the promise of substantially reducing cost and administrative overheads for H-1B employers, including Indian tech firms, the US is proposing to establish an advance registration process for companies applying for H-1B visas.
Under the rules being proposed, companies seeking H-1B visas for workers will have to register electronically with the USCIS — a process that would take just 30 minutes to complete.
Before the actual petition filing period begins (April of each year), the USCIS will select the number of registrations that are sufficient to exhaust the entire cap – essentially meaning that they may take into account various factors, say rejection rates or other variables that determine the final outcome.
“Employers would then file petitions only for the selected registrations. The registration system would save employers the effort and expense of filing H-1B petitions, as well as Labour Condition Applications, for workers who will be unable to obtain visas under the statutory cap,” the USCIS said.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS has said that the proposed H-1B electronic registration system could save employers “more than $23 million over the next 10 years”.
Industry observers familiar with the H-1B filing process say that with the proposed system, companies will be required to file visa petitions – incidentally a tedious and time consuming process – for only applications that get selected during the registration.
Employers benefit
In other words, the new process will reduce administrative burden and associated costs on employers. This is because H-1B employers currently spend significant time and resources compiling the entire petition and supporting documentation for each potential beneficiary without being sure whether they will eventually make it within the stipulated caps.
“It is a step in the right direction. Technology will not only help bring in efficiencies into the system but will also save unnecessary costs that companies were bearing. It will be a big advantage…If you know for sure that the cap is breached you do not have to apply… It will save filing fee and even the lawyer fee that can add up to substantial amounts,” said Mr Ameet Nivsarkar, Vice-President of Nasscom.
For the record, while numerical limit on H-1B visa is 65,000, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of those with US masters' degree or higher, are exempt from the fiscal cap.
Some industry experts also feel that the new system would lead to greater “democratisation” of filing process as cost-conscious smaller companies will have a better visibility on just how many petitions they need to file.
Greater transparency
Others say that greater transparency will kick-in, as the USCIS will have a bird's eye view of which employer is cornering just how many visas – all at click of a button. That may obviously not go down too well with pure body shopping firms, they say.
“For Indian companies, it will reduce the operational costs greatly and directly impact our operational competitiveness in the marketplace, especially when the onsite billing rates are also coming under pressure. The USCIS also stands to benefit as it will need to process and respond to only selected petitions as per its estimates and not each and every one filed, which is currently the case,” Mr Lavanya Rastogi, President of OSSCube Solution Ltd said.
Ms Poorvi Chothani who heads LawQuest, which has a global immigration practice, also believes that the new system would lead to greater efficiency for companies.
“They can now save time and money as the online registration system lets them know in advance whether or not they have made it to the H-1B cap,” she said adding that it would also reduce the time lag between filing and status updates.
Of course, the modalities of the proposed system and the final shape it takes will only be clear in the coming months; the USCIS over the next 60 days will seek industry and stakeholder feedback.
The 60-day comment period will allow “businesses and the general public to provide input on the proposed system in order to ensure it best meets the needs of employers that rely on H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers for specialty occupations,” the USCIS has announced.
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