Jump in H-1B Denials Affecting All Companies Seeking Visas

Nearly a third of H-1B visa petitions have been denied so far in fiscal year 2019, lending credence to employers’ and immigration attorneys’ complaints that getting the visas is becoming more difficult.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied 32 percent of initial H-1B skilled guestworker petitions in the first quarter of the fiscal year, up from 24 percent in FY 2018 and just 5 percent in FY 2012, according to a new analysis of USCIS data by the National Foundation for American Policy.

“Clearly there’s been a new standard for approving cases in which an H-1B visa holder is going ...