USCIS Took Steps To Prevent Abuse, Fraud In Employment-Based Visa Programs

US administration under Trump leadership has taken a series of steps to prevent abuse and fraud in the employment-based visa programs, including H-1B, a top official from the USCIS told lawmakers on Thursday.

Prominent among these include ensuring the fees that certain H-1B petitioners must now pay ultimately help to train US workers, clarifying calculation guidelines for the 1-year foreign employment requirement for L-1 petitions in order to ensure consistent adjudication.

Among other steps are changing the H-1B cap selection process in order to increase the chances of selection for beneficiaries who have earned a master's degree or higher from a US institution

US administration has also created a USCIS H-1B and H-2B fraud reporting online tip form along with creating an H-1B Employer Data Hub to provide information to the public on employers petitioning for H-1B workers, Edlow said.

The USCIS has issued the first report of its kind estimating the number of H-1B nonimmigrants authorized to work in the United States and has instituted electronic filing for multiple forms and, for the first time ever, using an electronic registration process for the purpose of H-1B cap selection.

Most recently, litigation resulted in USCIS being forced to overturn H-1B policy memoranda that were deemed to contravene the Immigration and Nationality Act. Issuing improper denials, resulting in the time and money spent fending unlawful decisions unnecessarily, drain agency resources that could be better used in eliminating case backlogs.