Paperless Intake Is Immigration Agency Director’s Top Priority

Employers should be able to ditch the paper visa application process in around two years.

The shift could have big implications not just for reducing backlogs and processing times, but also for a recent sore spot for employers sponsoring workers for H-1B skilled guestworker visas: the lack of premium processing.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna said his “top priority” for the agency is to move to all-electronic applications and petitions. “It’s going to happen before the end of 2020,” Cissna said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Law.

“Indeed, we’re so certain it’s going to happen ...