H-1B visa extension gets smoother as USCIS revokes Trump-era memo

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Tuesday restored a 2004 policy guidance regarding the extension of work visas such as H-1B, after revoking a Trump era guidence, which treated visa extension request as a new application.

According to the restored rule, the officials need to generally defer to prior determinations of eligibility when the same parties and facts are involved as in the initial petition.

However, the officers may not defer to a prior approval when there is a material error, material change, or new material facts that adversely impacts the petitioner’s, applicant’s, or beneficiary’s eligibility.

The revoked Trump policy which treated extension request as new application had increased administrative burden and costs for sponsoring employers.

“With this update, USCIS is reverting in substance to prior long-standing guidance issued in 2004, which directed officers to generally defer to prior determinations of eligibility when adjudicating extension requests involving the same parties and facts as the initial petition or application,” the USCIS stated.

The agency said that the update in its policy has been made in accordance with US President Joe Biden’s executive order titled ‘Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans’. The executive order, issued in February, had directed the secretary of homeland security to identify barriers that impede access to immigration benefits and fair, efficient adjudications of these benefits.

“Affording deference to prior approvals involving the same parties promotes efficient and fair adjudication of immigration benefits,” the USCIS added.