The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that it will transfer the processing of specific H-1B visa petitions to a different center in order to clear the existing visa backlog.
According to the agency’s announcement, some workloads were being shifted to the California center, VisaGuide.World reports.
“We are transferring these cases in response to the H-1B receipt issuance delays at the VSC. Please continue to file petitions based on the addresses provided on the Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker page,” the statement published by the agency reads.The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has stressed that such a decision has been taken in order to help the agency issue receipt notices for properly filed H-1B petitions faster.
“Please allow time for the CSC to process the transferred cases and do not submit duplicate petitions out of concern that your previous submission did not arrive or has been misplaced. If your petition is transferred, you will not receive a transfer notice, but you will receive a receipt notice as soon as your petition is receipted. Petitions will be worked to completion at the CSC once transferred,” the statement reads.The agency has emphasized the fact that it continues to face receipt issuance delays in other workloads across several service centers while adding that they are continuously working on this matter in order to reduce such delays. Authorities in the US have reported that the visa processing across categories has been slow recently, following a huge backlog as well as the shortage of staff at the service centers. Last month, the H-1B visa lottery concluded, following which the selected petitioners were urged to submit their applications to be able to start working in the US starting from October 1 this year. Besides, it was reported that several of such petitions also include visa extensions. If petitioners fail to have visa extensions, they would not be permitted to continue to work in the United States. Such an announcement, according to the Economic Times, comes days after former the United States Congresswoman Mia Love told the Senate Judiciary Committee that there was no need to expand the number of the H-1B visas issued annually after the programme wouldn’t be capable of keeping up the country’s needs. In this regard, Love said that in 2005, there were a total of 85,000 visas available, while stressing that Today, about 20 years later, 85,000 visas are available, stressing that there are many good options for expanding skilled immigration. Recently, VisaGuide.World reported that many Indians in the US who hold an H-1B visa, which permits companies and employers in the US to employ workers from outside the US, are facing several challenges after they need a visa stamp on their passport before being allowed to travel back to the US.