US extends suspension of premium processing for H-1B visas

In a jolt to Indian techies in the US, the country has extended the temporary suspension of premium processing for H1-B visas in a bid to clear the backlog.

The suspension was originally slated to last until September 10, 2018. But it has now been extended until February 19 next year, reported news agency PTI.

Premium processing helps shorten the usual processing time of H-1B visa petitions from an average of six months to 15 days for a fee of $1,225 (Rs 86,181). This feature allowed some companies to jump the queue.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the temporary suspension will help reduce overall H-1B processing times by allowing it to process long-pending petitions. The agency has been unable to process them due to the high volume of incoming petitions and premium processing requests over the past few months, reported PTI.

The temporary suspension will allow the US CIS to be responsive to petitions with time-sensitive start dates and prioritise adjudication of H-1B extension of status cases that are nearing the 240-day mark.

The maximum number of H-1B petitions are from high-skilled Indians. The US CIS received a maximum of 2.2 million H-1B petitions from high-skilled Indians between 2007 and 2017. India was followed by China with 301,000 H-1B petitions during the same period.

During his campaign, President Donald Trump had vowed to make H-1B visa policy tougher. However, according to an Indian American donor and supporter of Trump, this issue is unlikely to cause trouble in US's ties with India.

"President Trump first and foremost is a businessman. He knows how to grow US as a business. He is pretty clear on the position of US Chambers of Commerce that in order to grow the American economy, you need a lot of IT experts and professionals," Chicago-based Shalabh 'Shalli' Kumar told PTI.

"My expectation is that there would be a good monitoring of abuse and fraud in H-1B system. There is a little bit of that, not much. Otherwise when the US economy grows 4-5% per year, there is going to be a very big need of IT workers and IT work, which will still be primarily be going to India and Indians," he added.