Episode 86: Status update on domestic visa renewals post-pilot program

s episode of the BAL Immigration Report is brought to you by BAL, the corporate immigration law firm that powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. Learn more at BAL.com. 

In this week’s episode, BAL’s Tiffany Derentz provides an update on the U.S. Department of State’s domestic visa renewal pilot program, which ended May 1. Plus, the latest U.S. and global immigration news. 

From Dallas, Texas, I’m Rebecca Sanabria. 

Spotlight 

In January 2024, the U.S. Department of State launched a pilot program to process domestic visa renewals for certain H-1B visa applicants, allowing visa holders to renew their visa in the U.S. without having to return to their home country.   

The Department of State discontinued domestic renewal of nonimmigrant visas in 2004 due to increased security requirements. This pilot program was intended to test the Department’s technical and operational ability to resume domestic visa renewals after two decades’ worth of changes in law and technology.  

Tiffany Derentz, Senior Counsel based in BAL’s Washington, D.C. office, joins The BAL Immigration Report to provide an update on where domestic visa renewals stand since the pilot ended May 1. 

Derentz: Overall, the feedback has been very positive, and we [BAL] actually provided some feedback to the Visa Office to consider as they assess the pilot and plan next steps. But overall, we heard a lot of very positive experiences, and I think in many ways the department exceeded people’s expectations as far as timing and how easy it was to do the program. Of course, there were some areas of confusion and there are some areas that I’m sure that they will tweak. But overall, it was a very positive experience for anybody who did get to apply through the pilot. 

When asked whether this positive feedback means an official return of domestic visa renewals, Derentz was hesitant to give an absolute yes. 

Derentz: We are hearing that there will be a domestic visa renewal program, but we likely won’t hear more until the end of the year or early 2025. Hence my hesitation on the yes, because it is an election year and there is an election that happens right around the end of the year. 

Technically, the department has had the authority to issue certain nonimmigrant visas in the United States, including under the prior administration. When domestic visa renewals ceased in 2004 after 9/11, the regulations were never updated, so the underlying authority is in existence. It’s been there and it’s always been there, but the prior administration was not going to bring back domestic visa renewal, especially not when Trump pulled back interview waiver authorities, which is a very similar basis to what the domestic visa renewal program is based on and required applicants to be interviewed for a visa. You can’t interview applicants in the United States, which would force them abroad. So, the prior administration was not going to bring back this program from the dead, so to speak. I think it’s really going to depend on where the domestic program is in its process. If the Visa Office can get this up and running before a potential administration change, it might be a little harder to unwind. 

I could also see businesses putting a lot of pressure on the administration to keep it in place because ultimately the visas that are permitted to be issued under the existing regulations are business related categories. But if it never gets up and running and we have an administration change, I would be very surprised if it a new administration brought it back. Even if all the planning and everything was in place and they were ready to make that announcement, I would be surprised if the new administration brought it forward. 

Derentz continued to provide insights into what we could expect from a domestic visa renewal program under the current administration, the potential timing of the program’s rollout and any anticipated obstacles.  

Derentz: Under the current administration, yes, there are plans to have a domestic visa renewal program. And similar to the pilot, we expect that H-1B visa holders who were not originally included in a pilot, for example, somebody whose visa was issued somewhere other than Canada or India, would be eligible for the new program once it’s launched. And we also expect that their family members on H-4 visas would also be eligible.  

The domestic renewal program, it would no longer be a pilot at that point. The program may include other temporary visa classes, and in fact the regulations actually already allow the department to do this. They just haven’t done them in a long time, so I don’t expect them to include all of them at once, but instead to expand the program over time. And then, while I would expect that some of the eligibility criteria for renewal under the new program would be in place similar to that of interview waiver applicants, and these are individuals who still apply for their visa abroad, but they don’t necessarily have to go into the embassy or consulate for that interview with the consular officer in person, they’ll have to still meet certain criteria. But some of the limitations we saw under the pilot shouldn’t apply going forward. For example, one big limitation was that applicants had to apply within a specific time period and submit all of their materials within that time period. And this would just be an ongoing program where people could apply, you know, whenever it was that they needed to apply. 

There’s not a projected timeline for program expansion per se. It is an election year, so part of this depends on how far they get in announcing anything. If the program is not actually in place and running until 2025, the expansion might take place over the course of 2025, 2026, maybe even into 2027. But there are not any specific dates that we know of yet. We don’t actually have any information publicly available as to what the plan is. We just know that we have heard that there are plans to have a domestic renewal program, and based on similar programs that have gone forward in the past with other government agencies and with the State Department, any new program usually expands over time so they can build up the capacity and the capability of people to process those types of applications. 

One hurdle is payment of visa fees. The Visa Office does not have a mechanism in place to accept fee payments domestically. This is why, for the pilot, they had to tap into Canada’s and India’s existing platforms, so it was a little wonky depending on where you applied, especially for India. But this is because they don’t have that mechanism in place and for the purposes of a pilot, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to go through all of that effort to put that in place if the pilot was not successful. But because the pilot was successful, I expect that this is one of the areas that they’re focused on and trying to get put into place so that they can have a single means of accepting fee payment within the United States instead of having to tap into other platforms abroad. And then I think another hurdle is just resources. Visas haven’t been issued domestically for twenty years, so the Visa Office is going to have to build up the capacity to handle these adjudications, which takes time. 

BAL continues to follow news on the domestic visa renewal program and will share updates when available. Visit BAL.com and subscribe to the BAL newsletter to receive the latest insights from our legal experts. 

Immigration news roundup  

And now, the top immigration news of the week. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released updated H-1B registration process data following the completion of the second lottery round for fiscal year 2025, resulting in an overall selection rate of 28.7% of all eligible registration. Data trends reveal a 3.9% year-over-year increase in H-1B selection rates from fiscal year 2021 through 2025. 

In the United Kingdom, the Home Secretary announced a hold on the planned increase to the minimum income threshold for those bringing dependents to the U.K. on family visas. The increase is now pending until the Migration Advisory Committee completes a review of the impact of the increased income requirement. 

And in Singapore, officials released the upcoming salary benchmarking table as part of the first round of annual updates to its Complementarity Assessment Framework criteria. Candidates need to pass the points-based COMPASS evaluation system in addition to meeting the qualifying salary to obtain an Employment Pass. The upcoming table applies to initial EP applications filed after Jan. 1, 2025, and renewal applications filed after July 1, 2025. 

Find all of our news at BAL.com/news. Follow us on X at @BAL_Immigration. And sign up to receive daily immigration updates in your inbox at BAL.com/newsletter. 

We’ll be back next week with more insights from the world of corporate immigration. 

I’m Rebecca Sanabria. Thanks for listening. 

Copyright 

The BAL Immigration Report is provided by BAL. Copyright 2024 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. This report does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Visit bal.com for more information.