Approval Rates For Fresh H-1B Petitions Shoot Up: Report

According to a report by the US immigration think tank National Foundation for American Policy, approval rates for fresh H-1B petitions shotup for IT services in the July to September 2020 quarter, a sharp rise from a significant reduction during the era of Trump administration.

Compared to a denial rate of 21% through the first three quarters of federal fiscal year 2020, the last federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30 has shown 1.5% dropping in the denial rates, the National Foundation for American Policy reported on Wednesday.

The two federal court orders which scrapped the Trump administration’s memos, which was launched to curb the H-1B visas, have prompted this scenario, the report said.

On June 17, 2020, the federal court had urged the US Citizenship and Immigration to rescind a memo involving contracts and itineraries requirements for H-1B petitions involving third-party worksites. The USCIS also rescinded the January 2010 “Neufeld” memo, which the foundation said was interpreted more aggressively during the Trump administration.

“The memos and their interpretation were blamed for much higher denial rates for H-1B petitions, particularly for information technology services companies,” according to the foundation.

The denial rates had been 21% in federal fiscal year 2019 and 24% in fiscal year 2018.

The foundation also noticed that the denial rates under the Trump were higher than the denial rates of 5% to 8% between fiscal years 2010 and 2015.

The National Foundation for American Policy is a nonpartisan policy research group.