H-1 B Visas Still Available For US

28 Dec 2011

There is good news for overseas workers who are willing to move US under H-1B visas because there is still some availability of these visas for immigrant workers falling under special occupation.  

The US H-1B visa program is designed to employ immigrant workers in certain specialty occupations requiring technical or theoretical expertise in engineering, science or computer programming.

In spite of  the fact that the annual cap for the Fiscal Year 2012 i.e., from 1st October 2011 till 30th September 2012 has already been reached for the US H-1B visas. On 23^rd Nov 2011, USCIS- the US immigration department has announced the reaching of the annual quota of US H-1B visas for 2012. The US Immigration Departments accepts more than 65,000 applications every year.

The USCIS had earlier announced of having received sufficient US H-1B visa applications under the US H-1B cap-exempt visas meant for foreigners possessing higher or Master US degrees. The annual limit for such US H-1B visa category is fixed at 20,000 for each fiscal year. Acceptance and processing of US H-1B visa applications for following categories are still open:

• Petitions seeking extension of time for a US H-1B visa worker to stay in the US
• Those want to change the employment term for current US H-1B workers
• Enabling current US H-1B workers to change their employers
• Enabling current US H-1B workers to get employed in second H-1B work position

The Fiscal Year 2013 will begin on 1st October 2012 and petitions for sponsoring US H-1B workers will be accepted from or after 1st April 2012.

Hence, those who want to recruit overseas workers under the US H-1B visa category must act fast before the annual limit of the US H-1B visas is reached for the FY 2013.

Point notable here are:

• Some petitions for the US H-1B visas will remain exempt from the annual cap of 65,000 for those possessing advanced US degrees
• USCIS will only accept those applications which are complete and attached with all essential documents