Last week, US immigration officials released a memo, which attempted to clarify the process of vetting computer programmers who have filed an application to get an H-1B US visa. The memo, which was posted online by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, advised officials to disregard a memo released in the year 2000, which offered guidance on vetting H-1B US visa requests.
H-1B US visas are extremely popular with the technology industry and are currently processed by various centers across the US. The processing center in Nebraska, which began operating in 2016, differs from others in some of its regulations, which resulted in the update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A spokesman for USCIS denied the use of more lax guidelines to process any US visas, according to The Verge.
The new memo, which brought the Nebraska processing center into line with the other US centers, also focused on requirements for specialty occupations. The memo stated that a bachelor’s degree in the specialty obtained in the US is the minimum required to gain an H-1B US visa.
The guidance states that these requirements may not be met by some requested US visa positions and that programming has been considered to be specialty occupation almost by default, thus ruling out entry-level workers. Officials have also been reminded that the wage level for a position needs to be considered to see if it is complex enough to be eligible for a US visa.