Washington, November 2, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A Trump administration proposal to end the practice of giving weight to earlier approvals when processing H-1B and L-1 visa extensions could disproportionately affect Indian professionals, who account for nearly four-fifths of H-1B approvals for continuing employment, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.
The public comment period on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal, titled “Removing Deference to Prior USCIS Determinations of Eligibility”, is scheduled to close on November 13. Published in the Federal Register on October 14, the proposal is listed under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0529, with comments being accepted through regulations.gov.
The proposed rule seeks to remove a provision requiring immigration officers to generally defer to an earlier approval involving the same parties and facts, unless there has been a material error, a significant change in circumstances or new adverse information.
The change would apply to all Form I-129 petitions, covering H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, E and P visa categories. The existing provision will remain in force until a final rule takes effect.
USCIS approved around 399,000 H-1B petitions in fiscal 2024, with 71 per cent of beneficiaries born in India, its annual report to Congress showed. Of approximately 258,000 approvals for continuing employment, around 203,000, or 79 per cent, went to Indian-born workers. This category includes extension petitions.
DHS estimates that about 208,000 petitions annually could be affected. It projects that removing the deference requirement could increase requests for evidence by around three percentage points, translating into approximately 6,000 additional requests each year.
According to the department, petitions receiving such requests took an average of 64 additional days to process over the previous four fiscal years. It estimated the resulting additional costs to petitioners at around $134,000 annually.
DHS argues that the existing policy shifts the burden of justifying a departure from an earlier approval from the petitioner to the USCIS officer. It also cited site-visit data showing combined non-compliance and fraud rates of around 22 per cent at H-1B extension sites visited during fiscal 2022-2025, compared with approximately 17 per cent during fiscal 2018-2020, when the deference policy was not in place.
The department said officers would still be able to consider previous approvals where relevant, but would no longer be required to begin with a presumption of deference.
It also acknowledged that employers and workers may have made career and personal plans in the US based on expectations of continued employment and lawful stay.
The deference policy was introduced in 2004, withdrawn in 2017, reinstated in 2021 and incorporated into regulations in 2024.
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