Hi members,
i have an approved h1b petition from 2015 but was denied during stamping. another consultancy filed a cap expemt this year for my petition but they are not willing to upgrade to premium (i will be bearing that cost). they are saying that PP processing has come under double scrutiny since 2017 and chances of denial/rfe are high. they say uscis are placing the strictest of officers on PP cases. is that true?
they are questioning genuine projects if filer is a consulting company specially internal projects.
Well, USCIS have come up with many guidelines this year to stop the abuse of the H1B program, they do not publish anything like how they process premium vs regular and how officers deal with them. Based on recent stats you can see that RFEs have gone up… If your case is genuine and your employer has a genuine record, it should be fine.
To add to what Kumar said, one way USCIS can show that they are becoming stricter with reviews and adjudications regarding H1B is to generate RFEs. I am hoping that approval rates remain the same, it is just the annoyance of a needless delay that you need to get used to.