Employers who file multiple H-1B visa petitions for the same foreign worker hoping to improve the chance that their petition will be selected will no longer be able to do so under an interim rule promulgated by the Dept. of Homeland Security.

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. businesses to employ foreign workers in occupations requiring highly specialized knowledge such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers. By law, there is a congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 per new H-1B visas per fiscal year. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, on the first day that H-1B petitions could be received for fiscal year 2008, the agency had enough petitions to meet the cap. To promote fairness for prospective petitioners, the agency says it will now either deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker, and it will not refund filing fees for duplicative petitions. According to USCIS, the rule will not prevent related employers (such as a parent company and subsidiary) from filing petitions on behalf of the same foreign worker for different positions, based on legitimate business need.