The U.S. Department of State has announced the launch of a new domestic H-1B visa renewal pilot program. Starting on January 29, 2024, and through April 30, 2024, certain H-1B visa applicants will be eligible to apply for H-1B visas online. Notably, during this pilot program, only H-1B specialty occupation visa holders will qualify for the domestic renewal process. H-4 dependent visa holders will not qualify at this time for the domestic visa renewal process.

The application process is as follows:

  • To control the number of applications received, the DOS will, each week, release approximately 2,000 application slots for applicants whose most recent H-1B visas were issued by Mission Canada, and approximately 2,000 application slots for those whose most recent H-1B visas were issued by Mission India (approximately 4,000 total each week) on the following dates:
    • January 29
    • February 5
    • February 12
    • February 19
    • February 26
  • Once the limit is reached, the online portal will be locked until the next slots are released for each participating Mission group on the next application date. Applicants who are unable to apply on one application date may attempt to apply on any of the remaining application dates during the entry period. The application period for the pilot will close when all application slots are filled or on April 1, 2024, whichever comes first.
  • The DOS intends to complete processing of all applications by no later than May 1, 2024.
  • The average processing time for a domestic visa renewal application is expected to be six to eight weeks from the time that the passport and other required documents are received by the Department.
  • The DOS will not consider requests for expedited processing.

The qualifications for the program are as follows:

  • Qualified applicants are those individuals who are renewing a prior H-1B visa issued by Mission Canada with an issuance date from January 1, 2020, through April 1, 2023, or by Mission India with an issuance date from February 1, 2021, through September 30, 2021.
  • Qualified applicants are not subject to a nonimmigrant visa issuance (reciprocity) fee.
  • Qualified applicants would be eligible for an in-person interview waiver.
  • Qualified applicants have submitted ten fingerprints to DOS in connection with the prior visa application.
  • Qualified applicants will not have a "clearance received" annotation on their prior visa.
  • Qualified applicants will not have visa ineligibility that would require a waiver prior to issuance.
  • Qualified applicants must have an approved and unexpired H-1B petition, were most recently admitted to the U.S. in H-1B status, and are maintaining H-1B status in the United States. Their period of authorized stay in H-1B status has not expired. In addition, qualified applicants must intend to reenter the U.S. in H-1B status after a temporary period abroad.

By way of background, on November 28, 2023, Julie Stufft, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, held a briefing in Washington, D.C. to discuss the 2023 update on U.S. visa processing worldwide. Among the topics discussed, Ms. Stufft confirmed the introduction of the domestic visa renewal pilot program. More specifically, over a period of three months, the DOS will issue 20,000 visas to foreign nationals who are already in the United States. Ms. Stufft noted that this will be the first time in approximately 20 years that the DOS has issued visas domestically.

Prior to September 11, 2001, domestic visa renewal was available to nonimmigrant visa holders. After the September 11 attacks, the government implemented additional procedures, including biometrics data collection. The domestic program could not comply with these additional procedures, and, as a result, it was discontinued in June 2004. Since that time, foreign nationals have had to travel abroad in order to obtain new visas. Interview backlogs at the Consular posts abroad have become widespread, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led most Consular posts to close for several months. As a result, visa processing abroad has become more cumbersome due to lengthy wait times for appointments.

The benefit of the domestic visa renewal pilot program is that it can provide greater flexibility to foreign national workers with an urgent need to travel internationally unexpectedly. The domestic visa renewal process could allow them to do so more easily without the challenges of visa appointment scheduling abroad with heavy delays and wait times for appointments. The goal of this pilot program is to test the DOS's ability to resume domestic visa renewals and to assess the efficacy of the program in reducing worldwide visa wait times by shifting certain workloads from overseas Consular posts to the United States.

On December 15, 2023, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) which is part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the pilot program.

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