The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed scrapping the rule that tells immigration officers to give deference to their own earlier approval when an employer asks to extend a temporary worker's stay on unchanged facts — a change that would affect H-1B, L-1, O-1 and other work-visa extensions across the United States. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on October 14, and public comments are open until November 13.

Source: IANS via Nagaland Post

Under the current regulation, 8 CFR 214.1(c)(5), when USCIS decides a Form I-129 extension involving the same employer, the same worker and the same underlying facts, it gives deference to its prior finding that the worker is eligible — unless there was a material error, a material change, or new material information. The provision was written into the regulations in December 2024 as part of the H-1B modernization rule.

DHS says the provision conflicts with the immigration statute, which places the burden of proving eligibility on the petitioner, applicant or beneficiary. In the department's words, the deference regulation 'effectively shifts' that burden to the USCIS officer to justify departing from a prior approval, and it risks 'potentially perpetuating erroneous prior approvals and creating an environment in which fraudulent and meritless petitions are less likely to be detected.'

The practical scale is large. DHS estimates about 208,429 Form I-129 petitions a year — roughly 30 percent of all such filings — are eligible for deference, and projects about 6,044 additional requests for evidence (RFEs) each year if the rule is removed, along with longer processing times; the agency reports a 64-day difference in processing time between petitions that receive an RFE and those that do not.

Source: NPZ Law Group analysis of the Federal Register proposal (Docket No. USCIS-2026-0529)

In a second move issued at the same time, DHS and USCIS made permanent a rule ending automatic renewals of work permits for spouses of H-1B workers and others in the same categories. Indians account for the bulk of H-1B visa holders and of H-4 spouses with work permits, and are expected to be among the most affected by both measures, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via NewKerala

Nothing has changed yet for the deference rule itself: it is a proposal, not a final rule, and the current policy stays in force until DHS reviews the public comments and publishes a final version. Comments on the proposal (Docket No. USCIS-2026-0529) can be filed until November 13, 2026.