H1B Count Audit
Posted Jan 17, 2000

As some of you may be aware, in November 1999, the INS authorized the consulting firm of KPMG to audit the H-1B usage for fiscal year 1999 (FY 1999) in order to determine the amount of any H-1B overage in the FY 1999 and identify the problems that led to any excess H1B approvals being issued. The KPMG report should be released in the next several weeks. INS intends to correct its actions so that it can eliminate these problems for this fiscal year (FY 2000) and for future years.

In the meanwhile, the INS has confirmed that they will continue to adjudicate H-1B petitions for this fiscal year that are subject to the H1B cap, in accordance with the equalization process mentioned above in the Immigration Law Bulletin of The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, to ensure consistency among the four Service Centers.

After some errors on the part of the INS and apologies issued, the INS has now decided not to release any data on the H-1B program usage until they are certain of its accuracy. We at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy are concerned that INS often double counts the same person who applies for an H1B Petition with different employers, though the INS regulations require that the H1B quota is supposed to apply against individuals, not H1B petitions filed.

In addition, INS delays in providing information on H1B usage for this fiscal year and their inability to provide correct data on an ongoing basis has led to a surge of H1B filings. As always, we at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy will keep you posted of any new developments in this hot area! As mentioned below in the article on INS Advice on the Completion of Form I-129 , there is a possibility that once INS counts the H1B usage correctly, we will find that there are still plenty of H1B numbers to go around!