Filing Period for H-1B Visas Starts April 1 January 17, 2008
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) will begin accepting applications for H-1B working visas on April 1, 2008.Applications may be submitted for employment to commence on or after October 1, 2008.It is imperative that eligible applicants submit their application to the CIS on April 1, 2008 or as soon thereafter in order to avoid another potential blackout. For the 2008 fiscal year, the CIS announced that it had received enough applications to meet the 65,000 visa cap on the very first day of filing, which last year was April 2 since April 1 was a Sunday.Under the regulations, however, the CIS must also consider those filed on the second available day of filing whenever the cap is reached on the first filing day.
Last year, the CIS received approximately 133,000 H-1B petitions within the first two days of filing.As there are only 65,000 H-1B visas available each fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), all of the H-1B petitions were subject to a random lottery to determine whether it would be accepted for processing or not.The odds of acceptance were therefore just under 50%.All those not accepted were rejected and returned back to the Petitioner.As such, there have been no more H-1B visas available for this entire fiscal year, resulting in individuals becoming out of status in the US. This has been a significant problem as the H-1B nonimmigrant visa is the most used visa category for work authorization in the US.The H-1B visa is used by US companies -- both small independent companies and large multinational corporations -- to gain temporary employment authorization for professional workers. To qualify for an H-1B visa, the petitioning company must be able to prove the following requirements:(1) the position which the immigrant will fill is a “specialty occupation”, and (2) the immigrant meets the requirements for the specialty occupation.In other words, the company must prove that the position offered is a professional position that mandates an individual with at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a specific field, and that the individual sponsored has that particular type of bachelor’s degree or work experience equivalence. The H-1B visa allows the individual to work in the US for an initial period of up to three years.The H-1B visa can thereafter be extended for another three years, and then at one year intervals provided certain requirements are met.While working in the US as an H-1B visa holder, the individual can then undertake the steps necessary to obtain lawful permanent residency. The family members of an H-1B visa holder are also able to derive benefits for themselves.The spouse and unmarried children under age twenty-one are eligible to obtain an H-4 dependent visa in order to accompany the H-1B visa holder to the US. Accordingly, as the laws allow the submission of an application up to six (6) months before employment is to commence, individuals may submit H-1B applications with the CIS starting April 1, 2008 for the 2009 fiscal year. Due to the significant importance of H-1B visas, it is clear that there will be the same mad rush of applications for the 2009 fiscal year on April 1.It is therefore extremely important to secure a sponsor and commence preparations of the application right away to take advantage of the opportunity. Aquino & Aquino, A Professional Law Corporation, also handles family law, personal injury, criminal defense, employment discrimination, and unlawful termination.