DOMESTIC VISA RENEWAL PILOT FOR H-1B WORKERS TO START IN JANUARY

 DOMESTIC VISA RENEWAL PILOT FOR H-1B WORKERS TO START IN JANUARY

A limited number of H-1B specialty occupation workers will be able to renew their visas in the US as soon as January, State Department officials announced.

The rollout of the H-1B domestic visa renewal pilot will be limited to just 20,000 participants at first. That option would allow those H-1B holders to renew their visas by mailing them to the State Department rather than travel outside the US and face uncertain wait times to secure an appointment at a US consular office before returning.

A Federal Register notice with full details is expected to be published next month.

Also good coverage on the Interview Waiver letter that AILA and a few other organizations led to DHS and DOS:

With the current waiver authority set to expire at the end of December, the travel industry <https://aboutblaw.com/bbDf> and a coalition of business and immigration advocates have pressed the government to renew the waiver option again, calling the waivers “an indispensable discretionary tool” to improve efficiency of consular offices.