January 14, 2005

THE Department of Labor and Employment said on Friday that the United States has not stopped issuing H1B visas, or nonimmigrant temporary professional worker visas.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said what was temporarily halted was the acceptance of new petitions for new H1B visas from October 2004 to October 2005 as the cap set by the United States Congress has already been met.

The HIB visas are issued to individuals with a four-year bachelors degree from the US or abroad seeking professional position with a US employer.

The visa, which is available for a maximum of six years, can also lead to permanent residency. It is granted to foreigners in specialty professions such as architecture, engineering, nursing, medicine and computer programming. Since 2003 the US Congress set the cap at 65,000 H1B visas every fiscal year.

The problem, Sto. Tomas said, was that the US employers’ demand for temporary professional workers was much bigger than the visa cap.

“This has created a backlog in the processing of visas for this category and consequently delays the deployment of Filipino nurses and other workers under the H1B visa category,” she disclosed.

In a report submitted to Sto. Tomas, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said that in February 2004 the US Citizenship Immigration Service (CIS) has already announced that the 2004 cap on H1B visa has already been reached.

But Filipino nurses bound for the US were accommodated either under the H1B visa or the EB3 visa, or immigrant-based employment visa schemes.

Data from the US Embassy in Manila showed that it had issued 2,644 H visas for Filipino workers for 2003 and 2004 and 3,471 visas under the EB3.

Previously, foreign nurses entered the US for temporary employment with the H1A visa under the US Immigration Nursing Relief Act of 1966.

When the Act expired, foreign nurses were allowed to work in the US under the HIB and H1C visa categories.

Source : http://www.manilatimes.net/