Criteria for H-1B Domestic Visa Renewal Eligibility Released

A limited number of H-1B specialty occupation workers can begin applying to renew visas in the US starting in late January as part of a State Department pilot program.

Full details of the highly-anticipated pilot for domestic visa renewals whose workers are popular among employers in the technology industry were laid out in a Federal Register notice released Wednesday.

The program, which will accept applications from Jan. 29 to April 1, 2024, will begin with 20,000 participants as previously confirmed by the State Department. H-1B workers who received their visas at consular offices in India with an issuance date of Feb. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2021, or Canada with an issuance date of Jan. 1, 2020, through April 1, 2023, would be eligible.

Dependent H-4 visa holders won’t qualify for domestic visa renewals for now, as attempting to do so “created additional technical and operational challenges that cannot be resolved before the pilot launch date,” the agency said. “Limiting the pilot to only H-1B principal applicants will also maximize the Department’s direct impact on U.S. industry partners, whose H-1B employees may need to travel abroad for work purposes and risk being unable to immediately return if their visa is expired,” it said.

A page on the State Department’s website would allow applicants to self-certify that they meet eligibility criteria for the initial pilot.

To control the number of applications received, the State Department will open 4,000 application slots each week starting Jan. 29, with 2,000 slots for applicants with H-1B visas issued in Canada and 2,000 for applicants with visas issued in India. Each application received will count against the number of slots allotted for that week, and the online portal will lock once the limit is reached.

Applicants who weren’t able to renew in a particular week can try again when a new tranche of slots is released the following week, the agency said. The application period will close when all slots are filled or on April 1, 2024, whichever comes sooner.

The State Department added that it’s accepting public comments on the pilot program through April 15, 2024.

Although the domestic visa renewal option will start with a narrow pool of applicants, it’s seen as a tool that will eventually help relieve workloads on US consular offices abroad and help continue to drive down wait times for all appointments. It will also offer certainty to workers and their companies who would like to remove barriers to business travel for employees on temporary visas.

H-1B visa holders and other works on temporary visas have been required to leave the US and renew visas since the stateside option was discontinued in 2004 because of post-9/11 security measures. Although those workers could maintain their nonimmigration status, if they traveled outside the US they would be required to secure an appointment at a consular office to get a visa stamp before returning.

But long wait times for those appointments in countries like India—the biggest source of H-1B workers—have created uncertainty over travel plans, stranding some workers abroad for months and discouraging others from going abroad.