U.S. Now Giving Extra Scrutiny to Temporary Work Visa Extensions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is now applying the same level of scrutiny to requests to extend temporary work visas as it does for initial petitions for those visas.

The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader, hard-line approach to employment-based immigration applications. The policy is most likely to affect H-1B specialty occupation visas, which already have seen increased scrutiny in the form of additional requests for evidence from the USCIS. The agency has been questioning whether jobs that offer entry-level wages actually qualify for the visa program, immigration attorneys say.

The Oct. 23 memorandum is the first to ...