{"id":2633,"date":"2019-07-19T05:16:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swlgpc.com\/eng\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2019-07-19T05:16:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T12:16:09","slug":"data-uscis-increase-denials-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/data-uscis-increase-denials-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Data From USCIS Shows Increase of H-1B Denials in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP)<\/a>, H-1B denials have skyrocketed since fiscal year (FY) 2015. Analyzing data from USCIS’s H-1B Employer Data Hub<\/a>, NFAP found that denial rates for new H-1B petitions have quadrupled between FY 2015 and FY 2018, and the trend is increasing for the first quarter of FY 2019.<\/p>\n

Increased Denials of Initial H-1B Petitions<\/h3>\n

\"\"The denial rate for initial H-1B petitions has risen from 6% in FY 2015 to 24% in FY 2018. Startlingly, the data for the first quarter of FY 2019 shows a denial rate of 32%. In contrast, between FY 2010 and FY 2015, the denial rate for H-1B petitions never exceeded 8%.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, for the first quarter of FY 2019, USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) for 60% of H-1Bs. USCIS has also released a list of the top 10 reasons why they issued an RFE for FY 2018<\/a>. The main reason for RFEs in FY 2018 was that “the petitioner did not establish that the position qualifies as a specialty occupation.”<\/p>\n

Data from USCIS also showed that leading companies experience sharp increases in initial H-1B denials. At least 10 companies that provide professional or IT services to other U.S. companies had an increase of over 40% in their initial H-1B denial rates between FY 2015 and the first quarter of FY 2019. Several companies even saw denial rates exceed 40% in FY 2018 and the first quarter of FY 2019.<\/p>\n

Increase of Denials of H-1B Petitions for Continuing Employment<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sharp increase of denial rates for H-1Bs does not stop with only initial H-1Bs. Data from USCIS shows that in FY 2018, the denial rate for H-1B petitions for continuing employment increased to 12%, and for the first quarter of FY 2019 to 18%. In contrast, between FY 2009 and FY 2017, the denial rate for these petitions never exceeded 3%.<\/p>\n

USCIS’s memo on “Rescission of Guidance Regarding Deference to Prior Determinations of Eligibility in the Adjudication of Petitions for Extension of Nonimmigrant Status”<\/a>\u00a0is likely responsible for the increase of denial rates for these cases. This memo rescinded previous policy that instructed USCIS adjudicators to give deference to the findings of a previously approved petition as long as key elements were unchanged and there was no evidence of a material error or fraud related to the prior determination.<\/p>\n

The memo by USCIS is one of many other policy changes that have resulted from President Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” Executive Order<\/a> from April 2017, and the impact on H-1Bs – both initial and continuing employment – is already starkly evident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), H-1B denials have skyrocketed since fiscal year (FY) 2015. Analyzing data from USCIS’s H-1B Employer Data Hub, NFAP found that denial rates for new H-1B petitions have quadrupled between FY 2015 and FY 2018, and the trend is increasing for the first quarter of FY 2019. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17,14,8,9,11,38,10],"tags":[147,36,44,26],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swlgpc.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}