A promising State Department pilot program to renew H-1B visas in the United States will not include the dependents of H-1B professionals. The State Department’s decision to include only principal H-1B visa holders in the pilot program has not been previously reported. The decision will likely raise concerns among H-1B professionals with families in America. Although pleased many H-1B employees will be able to renew their visas without leaving the United States, businesses are disappointed spouses and children will be ineligible. Business organizations and their members want the State Department to include H-4 dependents when the pilot is expanded or made permanent.
The H-1B Visa Renewal Pilot Program
Starting in January, the State Department will allow 20,000 H-1B visa holders to renew their visas in the United States as part of a pilot program. (Andrew Kreighbaum reported on this for Bloomberg Law.) State Department officials say a Federal Register notice in December will provide details on pilot eligibility.
Attorneys and business representatives expect eligible pilot program participants to send in their passports. The State Department will remove or paste over the existing H-1B visa foil stamp, replace it with a new one and send passports back to the individuals.
Before the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act in 2002 became law, the State Department renewed visas in the United States. The Department stopped doing so in 2004, it said, because of the legislation’s biometrics requirements.
The Business And Legal Community’s Response To The Pilot Program
Traveling abroad to renew visas burdens H-1B visa holders and other foreign national employees because of airline costs and potential lengthy waits for visa appointments or processing. With these problems in mind, companies and business groups asked the State Department to include H-1B dependents in the pilot program.
Jon Baselice, vice president of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said his members appreciate the pilot and believe companies and principal H-1B employees will benefit but wishes dependents could also use the program. “I feel there are going to be headaches for families that could have been avoided had they included dependents in the pilot,” said Baselice.
The Chamber and its members pressed officials to include dependents and didn’t believe they received a good answer from the State Department on any technical reasons for excluding dependents.
In response to a question on this topic, a State Department spokesperson, on background, said, “While we appreciate the particular interest in H-4 visas for dependent family members, including other visa categories at this stage creates additional technical and operational challenges that cannot be resolved before the pilot launch date. As such, we made the decision to include only H-1B principal applicants while we test our internal systems and processes during this pilot.”
“No question that we would like to see family members included in the pilot,” said Tiffany Derentz, senior counsel at Berry Appleman & Leiden, “but I think the Department is approaching this in a very thoughtful manner by starting small. The last thing they want is for the pilot to fail, which means they can’t have a lot of problems right out of the gate.”
“Limiting the pilot to only H-1B principal applicants will also maximize our direct impact on U.S. industry partners, whose H-1B employees may need to travel abroad for work purposes and risk being unable to immediately return if their visa is expired,” according to a State Department spokesperson.
“I think this is likely to decrease the usefulness of domestic visa renewals for people with families, as usually the family travels together to do their visa renewals,” said Kevin Miner, a partner at Fragomen. “My hope is that the limitation is just a function of the pilot project nature of the initial 20,000 applications, and they likely will have sufficient demand from H-1Bs who don’t have dependents to utilize all of those numbers.”
Businesses recognize the State Department has made strides on the visa front. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Julie Stufft said in a briefing on November 27, 2023, that the ability to waive interviews for certain applicants, typically previous travelers, has reduced average wait times, which increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. The State Department released information indicating in FY 2023 it issued a record number of student visas in India and the most-ever visas for temporary and seasonal workers. It also issued more student visas since FY 2017 and more visitor visas since FY 2015.
H-4 Visa Holders As Workers
Beyond inconveniences for families, H-4 spouses have become significant economic contributors since a 2015 regulation provided work authorization. An estimated 90,000 H-4 spouses work in the United States, with a high percentage employed in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Madeline Zavodny, a University of North Florida economics professor, estimates almost 90% of the spouses of H-1B visa holders have at least a bachelor’s degree, and over half have a graduate degree, according to a 2022 National Foundation for American Policy analysis.
“An H-1B visa holder might not have their job interrupted with the domestic visa renewal but the H-4 spouse working at a tech firm or hospital will still have to deal with leaving their home, traveling abroad and worrying about getting their visa renewed,” said Baselice.
Under the 2015 regulation, a spouse is eligible for an employment authorization document if an H-1B visa holder has an approved immigrant petition (I-140) or has waited a year since filing an I-140 petition or permanent labor certification and extending H-1B status beyond six years.
The Next Stage
Businesses and attorneys hope the visa renewal pilot program will succeed and expand. “For this to be a truly useful program, they need to expand the program to include dependents and increase the types of visas that can be renewed domestically,” said Fragomen’s Kevin Miner. “If they are able to do such an expansion of the program, it would make the process of obtaining a renewed visa stamp more predictable and less expensive.”
“Full program details, including additional information regarding the limited scope of the pilot, will be provided in a Federal Register notice to be published in the coming weeks,” according to a State Department spokesperson. “We recognize that H-4 dependents are interested in the prospect of domestic visa renewal, and we will consider this as we move to expand the program after this initial pilot.”
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