From the end In January, Chicago-based immigration attorney Ryan Helgeson noticed an unusual trend: He filed a job visa petition on behalf of his foreign-born clients, and he gained a greater boost from U.S. citizenship and immigration services.

Helgeson's company, Mcentee Law Group, represents a technician who wishes to immigrate or stay in the United States by granting a professional career or extraordinary ability. On average, Helgeson's companies submit 50 to 75 visa petitions per month. When employers enter visas on behalf of foreign workers, up to 90 per month during the peak of the “H-1B season”, candidates then submit formal petitions. During his years of practicing law, Helgeson and his team occasionally received other evidence from USCIS or RFE requests as part of the agency's review of applicants.

But since Donald Trump took office and began cracking down on immigrants, his visa petition filed for “the number of RFEs and interest rates has undoubtedly increased.” This followed three other immigration lawyers who told Wired. Whether their clients are applying for an H-1B visa, an O-1 extraordinary ability visa, a comprehensive visa for foreigners looking to move to the U.S. office, or a specific visa for traders and investors, USCIS has been seeking more information about applicants.

Immigration lawyers told Wired that this includes more letters of support, education certificates and biometric data requirements. Attorneys say some pushbacks are based on “adverse information” about applicants or applicants who failed to update their addresses. But other RFEs are redundant and request the information provided. In some cases, attorneys are working to determine what USCIS may be looking for.

"The tone of the request for evidence remains the same, but the whole process is openly hostile," Helgeson said. He added that these requests from USCIS could double the time required for visa processing.

Resubmitting a visa petition is also expensive. Matt Doyle, a British tech entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas and a client of the Mcentee Law Group, recently denied an EB-1 Visa application. Now he has to reapply. Doyle will pay the government another $4,000 to speed up his reapply, except for the $20,000 he said he has paid for him and his family. Currently, the law firm is exempting any additional fees.

"Of the three standards, I was approved for two, and they acknowledge the innovation and uniqueness (of my company), but they don't think the evidence shows a greater impact," Doyle said. Entrepreneurs are now seeking other letters of support from clients and colleagues. He said he is paying to speed up the process and hopes his visa will be approved before it expires this fall.

“In the past 30 years of my legal partners and I practicing immigration law, we have seen more rejections than we have accumulated in cases like Matt in the past few weeks,” Helgeson said.