USCIS H-1B Quota Adjudication Delays

Petitioning for an H-1B cap candidate is not an easy task for employers. Most employers have to especially plan or postpone projects for their cap-subject international specialty workers. Furthermore, most employers who do sponsor H-1B petitions are not large corporations but small businesses, with few employees, start-up ambitions, and most importantly, small business funding. Additionally, each H-1B petition costs nearly $3000 to $3,750 for cap-subject H-1B employyes and these employees cannot begin work until October 1, at the earliest. Yet, knowing these costs, risks, and timelines, USCIS continues to have approximately 17,000 H-1B quota files still pending in its California and Vermont Service Centers. Therefore, approximately 20% of H-1B cap-subject petitions continue to be unadjudicated and October 1st is right around the corner. Instead of responding to the employers’ frustration by implementing more efficient processing systems, USCIS has instead advocated that the solution to speeding up the adjudication process for employers is requesting premium processing, an additional $1,225 cost per H-1B petition for employers. Premium processing will allow the application to be adjudicated within 15 days, although the petition has been sitting unadjudicated with USCIS for over four months