The Need for Speed: The Role of Employers in Immigrant Work Visa Regulatory Prioritization

Abstract

Employers are central, yet understudied, actors in the immigrant work authorization process. The authors motivate and empirically assess three central theoretical accounts to explain employers’ regulatory prioritization of specific immigrant work visa applications: the role of immigrant human capital, employers’ past filing experience, and the relative dissimilarity of the focal application to employers’ past applications. These accounts are tested using U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administrative records pertaining to the H-1B temporary work visa. The authors analyze employers’ selective visa application prioritization as reflected in their use of “premium processing” to expedite government visa adjudication, persistence to the point of adjudication (i.e., not withdrawing or abandoning the application), and requests for longer employment durations. Findings primarily support the human capital and relative dissimilarity accounts. Results underscore the role of employers in visa processing speeds, the granting of legal status, and legal status durations—outcomes more frequently attributed to regulator discretion.