Trump’s DHS Seeking More H-1B Visa Applicants’ Biometric Data

Businesses sponsoring foreign workers for the H-1B program have begun receiving surprise requests for biometric data like fingerprints from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The requests have sought further documentation of a job or degree to prove eligibility for a visa program. Employers are notified if the agency has identified “adverse information” about a beneficiary, but USCIS hasn’t shared what specific factors may trigger the requests.

Only a small percentage of cases are being met with the requests for evidence, said Kevin Miner, a partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP. It’s unclear what the government intends to do with data collected, he said.

“Those are unusual,” he said. “We’ve not seen anything like that before.”

The USCIS in March completed the annual H-1B visa lottery, which received fewer entries this spring but still showed demand far greater than the number of visas available. The biometric requirements aren’t just being applied to new petitions for specialty occupation workers. Applications to renew H-1B status as well as I-140 petitions to initiate green card sponsorship have been hit with the requests.

Requests for evidence on H-1B petitions surged during the early months of the first Trump term as part of enhanced vetting of visa applicants and foreign workers across the board. Many attorneys expected tougher scrutiny of new employment-based visa petitions to mirror Trump’s first term.

Biometric information like fingerprints historically were sought when immigrants and foreign workers applied for visas outside the US or when they’ve sought to adjust status to permanent residency.

The demands for biometic data started when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement began removing students on F-1 visas from a federal database establishing their legal status in the country. Both steps caught attorneys and visa holders off guard because there was no notice or formal announcement from the Department of Homeland Security.

USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said the agency is boosting screening and vetting of all applicants and that it reserves the right to conduct additional security checks at any point in the immigration lifecycle.

“Many screening and vetting safeguards lapsed under the prior administration,” he said in a statement. “Collecting beneficiary information and biometric data is a necessary part of USCIS’s efforts to promote national security and public safety and to mitigate fraud by conducting screening and vetting in all immigration programs and the agency is proud to be returning to this important work.”

The agency did add biometric requirements for some forms submitted by dependent visa holders. But that data was not sought for H-1Bs or I-140s until now, Miner said.

Chris Prescott, a partner at Patel Law Group, PLLC, said he’s had some H-1Bs approved in recent weeks and attended a USCIS biometrics appointment without incident. But recent arrests of some applicants at scheduled interviews have raised anxieties about any appointment request resulting in detention, he said.

“If somebody had said that three to four months ago, it would have sounded pretty extreme,” he said.