USCIS started the Targeted Site Visit and Verification Program on April 3rd, 2017. This initiative was part of the Hire American Buy American Executive Order by Trump Administration.
Previously, USCIS site visits were used to determine if the H-1B employee was working at an end-client site as claimed in the H-1B petition and an H-1B amendment was filed for every new project location.
By 2019, the targeted site visit program has evolved into a different thing. The site visit follow-up email questionnaire has become a mini RFE in many cases. USCIS is asking for the number of employees who have similar qualifications and were sponsored by the employer for the same job title.
USCIS is asking for financial details like profit and loss statements and balance sheets that do not have any relation to the site visit program or sponsoring the H-1B employee. Recently site visit follow-up questionnaires have started focusing on the employer-employee relationship and reporting to the employer when the H-1B employee is working at an end client site.
USCIS wants to know how the H-1B employee is administered at the end client site.
Employees have the habit of sending approved timesheets by Friday evening or Monday morning. Still, there is no consistency in sending weekly task reports. H-1B employees tend to send weekly task reports all at once before an RFE instead of sending them consistently every week.
Performance evaluation reports need to be done every quarter, but employers tend to procrastinate on these performance evaluations.
USCIS is working on a rule called "Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program" which will be published soon in the federal register. This will cause more denials for H-1B employees who do not have Computer Science degrees and are working in IT-related job titles like Software Developer, Software Engineer, Business Intelligence Analyst, Network Administrator, System Administrator, Database Administrator, Data Scientist or Data Analyst.
Previously, if an H1-B employee had a non-Computer Science degree and more than six years of IT work experience, USCIS took a lenient view and used to approve H-1B extensions without any issues.
The S386 bill to end per-country quota limits has failed to pass in the senate due to strong objections by Democratic Party Whip Senator Durbin. Senator Durbin strongly feels that 90% of employment based green cards will go to India for next 6-8 years if this bill passes.
Immigration Association leaders should ask for 30% of existing green cards to be allocated to reduce the green card backlog instead of asking for overall 90% of green cards in all categories. 15% of green cards in EB2 and EB3 categories each should be allocated for backlog reduction.
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Press release by: Indian Clicks, LLC
