DHS OIG Report: H-2 Petition Fee Structure Is Inequitable and Contributes to Processing Errors (Mar. 6, 2017)

DHS OIG, Mar. 6, 2017 - "USCIS’ H-2 petition fee structure is inequitable and contributes to processing errors. Federal guidelines indicate that beneficiaries should pay the cost of services from which they benefit. However, USCIS charged employers a flat fee of $325 per H-2 petition ($460 as of December 23, 2016), regardless of whether it was to bring one or hundreds of temporary nonimmigrant workers into the United States. Each worker listed on a petition must be vetted through an extensive adjudication process, for the most part within 15 days. USCIS officials told us their systems do not capture the time to adjudicate petitions with various numbers of workers, which is needed to equitably set the H-2 petition fee. As such, USCIS instituted the flat fee structure because it is easy to manage. USCIS also did not limit the number of named temporary nonimmigrant workers that can be included on a single H-2 petition, despite the processing time requirement. This flat fee structure has created disparities in the costs employers pay to bring foreign workers into the United States. It can be more burdensome for small employers or others who petition to bring in a single worker for whom the fee exceeds the processing cost as compared to large petitioners. Conversely, employers seeking to bring in multiple named workers pay disproportionately less as their petitions can be labor intensive, taking days and sometimes weeks to complete. Large petitions are complex and error prone when adjudicators rush to process them within required time frames. Prompt USCIS action to assess a more equitable fee structure or limit the number of named workers listed per petition would help eliminate disparate costs to employers, reduce the potential for errors, and better align agency processing costs."