H-1B holders can renew visas without leaving the US from January 2024

In a move likely to benefit Indian professionals, a pilot program allowing H-1B holders to renew visas without leaving the US, has cleared a review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

To begin with, 20,000 H-1B specialty occupation workers will be able to renew their visas in the US beginning from January 2024. However, the full details of eligibility and operation of the pilot will emerge when a notice is published in the Federal Register, Bloomberg Law reported.

While the H1B employees can renew their visas without leaving the country, their spouses can't.  

The pilot cleared the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review on December 15, the final regulatory hurdle before publication.

1B and L1 visas are popular visa categories for US employers and foreign professionals working in the US, but the discontinuation of stateside renewals two decades ago posed significant challenges. Visa holders when traveling outside the US, were forced to endure long processing times and disruptive international travel for renewals.

The latest development comes months after the White House announced a pilot programme for domestic renewal of certain categories of H-1B visas during the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June this year.

It would allow H-1B holders to renew their visas by mailing them to the State Department rather than travel outside the US and face uncertain wait times to secure an appointment at an American consular office before returning.

In countries like India, the largest source of H-1B workers, high visa wait times have added uncertainty to travel plans for those workers and their employers.

An estimated 75 per cent of the H-1B visa granted in a year are known to go to workers from India, hired by some of the largest US tech giant such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google  and Facebook.

In 2022, over 1.2 million Indians traveled to the US, representing over 10% of all visa applicants worldwide. This includes 20% of all student visa applicants and 65% of H and L employment-based visas. 

Due to heavy visa backlogs, some H-1B workers have pursued work-arounds such as traveling to nearby countries with fewer backlogs to secure appointments.

The average wait time to secure a visa appointment for travel to the US fell to 130 days last year, a drop of 70 days from fiscal year 2022.

The State Department considers acceptable wait times to be closer to 90 days.

Why this matters? 

The highly-anticipated roll-out of a stateside visa renewal program by the DOS could be pivotal for companies bringing workers into the US and individuals coming to work in the US., especially in light of the challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath," said Kirsten Kelly, Partner, Immigration Law at KPMG Canada.

Currently, all visa applicants are required to exit the United States, and schedule interview appointments at U.S. consular posts abroad.  Even if granted an interview waiver, the visa applicant must leave the US and be physically located in the consulate’s jurisdiction. 

 "A stateside program will save certain H-1B visa applicants countless hours of travel and money spent on travel abroad, as they will no longer be required to exit the United States and visit a consular post for the renewal of an H-1B visa," added Kellly.

There is also hope that this programme will alleviate consular backlogs and reduce delays that have resulted in prolonged visa appointment wait times and processing.

"The understanding among the immigration community is that this programme is just the beginning of a much more expansive visa-renewal program that will involve additional visa types and be open to additional applicants.  It is widely appreciated that the DOS will be offering a much more efficient and safer method of carrying out visa renewals as an alternative to required international travel," said Alexander Tonic, Associate at KPMG Canada.

With inputs from IANS