September 07, 2004

Gone in the blink of an eye — that is what the rush for H-1B visas seems like. In a span of less than a fortnight, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Bureau (USCIS) has received a fresh inflow of nearly 6,000 petitions.

The bureau announced that as of August 18, it had received 45,900 H-1B petitions. On August 4, the USCIS had announced that 40,000 H-1B petitions had been filed. At this rate, the annual cap for H-1B visas, which has been mandated at 65,000 may be reached even before the fiscal year ’05 (October 1, ’04) begins. For those seeking a H-1B visas, now is the time to rush.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa, which allows a US employers to hire foreigners for up to six years in “speciality occupations,” that is, occupations which require a high degree of specialised knowledge. In real terms, the actual number of H-1B visas that Indians can draw from is 58,200, the remainder are reserved for Chilean and Singapore nationals under free trade agreements.

Further, the USCIS announced on August 4 that of the 40,000 petitions received, 21,000 H-1Bs had been issued. This would mean that only 37,200 H-1Bs are still available. Of course, the available number of H-1Bs could have come down in the course of the fortnight. Despite the slowdown in hiring of foreign nationals, Indians have continued to corner the lion’s share in H1-Bs. Of the 1,03,584 H-1Bs issued in the fiscal year ’02, as many as 21,066 were issued to Indians.

The rush for H-1Bs would have a significant impact on Indian professionals.

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/