H-1B visas are issued to foreign individuals hired by U.S. employers to perform services in "specialty occupations" that require bachelor’s degrees. Many industry groups, especially those in the high technology sectors, assert that they are facing a severe and widespread shortage of skilled professionals. As a result, Congress increased the annual number of H-1B admissions from 65,000 to 115,000 for FY 99 (October 1998 – September 1999) and for FY 2000 (October 1999 – September 2000). The Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS"), however, recently acknowledged that it does not have an accurate count of how many H-1B visas were issued for FY 99. The INS maintains that it issued approximately 40,000 visas in excess of the 115,000 limit, although it recently retracted that estimate. Some Congressional leaders believe that the INS issued fewer H-1B visas than are authorized under the 115,000 limit.

KPMG to Review Visas Issued by INS

To address the H-1B count issue, the INS has engaged KPMG to review the number of visas issued in FY 99 and, upon the recommendation of KPMG, it will decide its next course of action. KPMG is expected to give a report by January 2000 as to whether it can rely on internal INS H-1B numbers for FY 99 or whether a document-by-document count will be required. Until INS has "reliable data," it will not release a monthly count of H-1B visa availability as it did in 1999. The "final" recommendation by KPMG is due in March.

Another aspect of this problem is that some INS Service Centers process H-1B applications more quickly than others. Therefore, the INS has initiated a new "pause" policy in order to ensure that H-1B visa petitions submitted to the various Service Centers are adjudicated at a similar pace. For example, the Vermont Service Center was directed not to process any new H-1B applications for almost six (6) weeks. This policy is intended to allow the INS Service Centers to process H-1B visas on a consistent basis nationwide. If any of the Service Centers are processing H-1B visas at a faster rate than the other Service Centers, the INS will "pause" that Service Center’s processing of new H-1B applications. The INS has given no indication that it intends to give prior notice of such pauses, and has not provided any information as to the duration of such pauses.