Indian H1B applicants more likely to receive RFE

The United States immigration agency officials are more likely to issue a Request for Evidence (RFE) to Indian H1B visa applicants when compared to other country people.

An RFE is an additional inquiry that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ask for when it requires additional evidence to make a decision on an H1B case. An RFE is for information about either the beneficiary or the petitioner, or both.

According to the data collected by VisaGuide, 72.4 per cent of Indian applicants and 61.2 per cent of applicants from remaining countries received an RFE.

In 2018, 309,986 applications for H1B visa, or 73.9 per cent of the total H1B applications for the year, were from India only. The H1B work visa is most commonly used by Indian technology professionals to work at client sites in the US.

H1B is the most preferred visa for Indian IT companies and as it helps them cut costs and gain a margin advantage over multinational players by sending engineers to the US.

But, IT services companies have been accused of misusing the lottery-based system, which allows 65,000 visas for the general category and an additional 20,000 to those with a US Master’s degree from an accredited institution.

The web portal expects Indians to continue to account for the highest number of applicants this year and the number of women applicants to increase because of the risks of H4 visa holders.

A number of potential H4 visa holders may turn to the H1B visa programme, as a way to join their spouses working in the US, the portal said.