According a recent study by the National Foundation by American Policy, denial rates for temporary worker Visas have increased from 13 percent to 33 percent since 2017.
Frank Cimino and his sister Margarita Morton are both immigration attorneys who work with clients applying for temporary worker visas, also known as an H-1B.
Morton, with the Morton Law PLLC in Fort Worth, said that once your H-1B Visa is approved “you can work with that U.S. Employer for 3 years, you can extend it, and it actually lends to a pathway to get your green card."
Each year the Federal Government approves 85,000 H-1B Visas to highly skilled immigrant workers with a Bachelor's degree or higher.
“You can do it at the consulate overseas depending on how the person entered the us or you can do it within the U.S. and that's called adjustment status," Morton said.
But according to Cimino, with the Frank Cimino Law Firm in Killeen and Temple, worker applications are being denied at a higher rate than ever before as Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to crack down illegal immigration.
"If you were to see one of these people. They speak English, they shop in the places where we shop, and for the most part you would not know who they are," Cimino said.
Cimino went on to say that because of the recent crackdown, a lot of immigrant families are afraid to apply out of fear it would put them on the radar screen.
“Parents now are seeing that their children are having to go somewhere else. Children without families. So it's creating other social services,” Cimino said.
According to both attorneys, the best thing to before applying for a Visa is to get help first.
"Probably staying under the radar would be the best thing, and to check with an immigration attorney if a person wants to change their status or wants to change their status, or check their status and then do your homework,” Cimino said.
