The State Department has submitted a Federal Register notice on a planned H-1B domestic visa renewal pilot to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

‌Key Points:

• The notice is currently under review by OMB.
• Details of the notice, including eligibility requirements for the limited H-1B pilot, are not yet publicly available.
• Once OMB has completed its review, the State Department can publish the notice in the Federal Register.

‌Additional Information: Domestic visa renewals have not been broadly available since 2004. The State Department announced plans for a domestic renewal pilot in February.

BAL Analysis: The pilot is a significant step towards bringing back a domestic visa renewal program. While details are not available yet, the pilot is expected to apply to a limited number of H-1B visa holders before being reviewed and potentially expanded to a larger program in the future. Eligibility criteria, scope and duration of the pilot will not be known until the notice is cleared and published in the Federal Register.