The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealed today that the number of skilled worker visas required for 2024 has increased by more than 60% compared to 2022, raising “serious concerns” that the system will be manipulated to take advantage of it.
A report revealed today by USCIS on H-1B visas, typically used by US technology companies, showed that as of the close of the registration period last March, it received 780,884 visa applications for the 2024 period, or 61.97% in more than the 483,927 submitted last year.
Of the 780,884 applications, 758,994 were deemed eligible, which is 59.98% more than the eligible visas submitted in 2022 (474,421).
USCIS said it found a large number of beneficiaries with multiple eligible documents presented, a number “much higher than in previous years.” Of the 758,994 eligible registrations, 408,891 were for recipients with multiple registrations.
The figure “raised serious concerns that some may have sought to gain an unfair advantage by filing multiple filings on behalf of the same payee,” USCIS warned in the report.
H-1B visa applications are processed by employers or third parties who act as intermediaries. On average, the United States issues 85,000 of these visas each year.
The agency indicated that the multiple registrations may have unfairly increased candidates’ chances of selection.
“We remain committed to preventing abuse of the registration process and ensuring that only those who abide by the law can file an H-1B petition,” the agency said.
The number of multi-registration applicants grew markedly from those filed in 2020, when the agency filed just 28,125 eligible registrations for multi-registration applicants, representing 10.4 percent of the 269,424 eligible registrations filed that year.
USCIS reminded H-1B, visa applicants, today that when submitting the registration, each applicant must sign a certificate, under penalty of perjury, that the information is complete, true, and correct, and that no attempt has been made to cheat the lottery system by submitting more questions.
