Most H-1B denials not being appealed, says US think tank

Pune: Most instances of H-1B visa denial do not attract appeals by employers, according to new research by a US-based anti-immigration think tank. This comes even as denial rates for the prized visa category have spiked to 24% in financial year 2019 from about 6% in 2015. In 98.4% of the cases where the H-1B visa was denied, the employer chose not to file an appeal, said David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which is based in Washington, DC.
In fiscal year 2019, 69,543 initial H-1B denials were recorded, but only 1,395 cases attracted appeals, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. “My sense is that the system is loose enough, and the applications are (often) faulty, so that there is little effort to appeal. If the employers felt strongly enough, they would rally around and appeal many of the denials, as a form of protest, but they have not done so,” North told ET on email.