State Department announces domestic H-1B visa renewal pilot

Policy effect

The State Department announced a pilot program to resume domestic visa renewal for certain qualified H-1B nonimmigrant visa applicants.

Official source excerpt

Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 244 / Thursday, December 21, 2023 / Notices 88467 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: None. DEPARTMENT OF STATE renewal of visas within the United States. Do not submit case inquiries, Matthew Ramsey, [Public Notice: 12235] case numbers, bar code numbers, or Executive Director, Office of Privacy and RIN 1400–AF79 photographs from any vias application. Disclosure, Office of the General Counsel. The Department does not intend to Pilot Program To Resume Renewal of address comments as part of this pilot, Participating Agencies: SSA and H–1B Nonimmigrant Visas in the but will … ‘‘Department’’) is announcing a pilot publicly posted to the Federal Law 100–503, 102 Stat. 2507 (1988), as program to resume domestic visa eRulemaking Portal at amended, and the Computer Matching renewal for qualified H–1B www.regualtions.gov. Therefore, you and Privacy Protection Amendments of nonimmigrant visa applicants who meet may wish to consider limiting the 1990 (Privacy Act), (Pub. L. 101–508, certain requirements. This notice amount of personal information that you 104 Stat. 143 (1990)), and the describes the requirements for provide. The Department may withhold regulations and guidance … and are designed to limit the pilot overseas or domestically, within 48 ability to resume domestic visa renewals population to a size that is manageable months of the expiration of their prior for specific nonimmigrant and consistent with available resources, visa in the same classification, will be classifications and to assess the efficacy and control the costs of conducting the eligible for a waiver of the in-person of this program in reducing worldwide pilot, while still testing the efficacy of interview requirement. Based on visa wait times by shifting certain a domestic renewals program. statutory requirements for an interview workloads from overseas posts to the Specifically, the Department is waiver under INA section 222(h)(2), United States. limiting the scope of the pilot to applicants for domestic visa renewal applicants who were previously issued must reside in the United States. II. Pilot Program and Requirements for visas within specified dates by Missions Applicants are not required to submit Participation Canada or India to properly assess the evidence of residence in the United Pursuant to 22 CFR 41.111(b)(3), the performance and capabilities of States at the time … they submit their Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa contractors who manage the majority of application beyond the information Services (VO DAS) and Department the Department’s worldwide visa requested in the visa application; officials designated by them, are processing. The population of visa however, additional information may be authorized to issue, in their discretion, applicants in India and Canada is requested at any time prior to visa nonimmigrant visas in the United sufficiently representative of the global issuance. States, to qualified applicants who meet population and visa issuances … fall within the limiting the scope of the pilot to include clearance are ineligible for interview pilot’s scope. Consequently, applicants only H–1B applicants. After careful waiver, but such clearance requirements that fall outside of this scope are not consideration, the Visa Office are not public information. Any such eligible to apply for, nor be issued, a determined that including other visa requirement would be based on the visa domestically. categories, including H–4s (dependents applicant’s individual circumstances. Participation in this pilot will be of H–1B principal applicants), created Applicants who do not meet the limited to applicants who(se): additional technical and operational requirements for domestic adjudication 1. Are seeking to renew an H–1B visa; challenges that cannot be resolved as published in this notice, including during the pilot phase, the Department before the pilot launch date. For eligibility for a waiver of the in-person will not process any other visa instance, developing standard operating interview requirement, are not eligible classifications; procedures and training staff to to apply for, nor be issued a visa 2. Prior H–1B visa that is being recommence … Order 14058, signed on December 13, 7. Do not have a visa ineligibility that or collect fingerprints domestically, a 2021 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/ would require a waiver prior to visa key requirement for participation in the briefing-room/presidential-actions/ issuance; pilot is that applicants for domestic visa 2021/12/13/executive-order-on- 8. Have an approved and unexpired renewal must qualify for a waiver of the transforming-federal-customer- H–1B petition; in-person interview requirement under experience-and-service-delivery-to- 9. Were most recently admitted to the section 222(h) of …

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