The US has released an official statement claiming that the government will start accepting requests for H-1B visas from the 1st of April. H-1B visas are quite popular among Indian techies and is usually used by US companies to hire workers from foreign nations in the field that require highly specialized knowledge like science, engineering and computer programming. It is the most important work visa for Indian IT professionals to work in the USA.
- There has not been any change for the congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 on H-1B visas and for the financial year of 2016-2017, it is going to begin from 1st of October. The first 20,000 petitioners for the visa with a US master’s degree have been exempted from the 65,000 cap.
- The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has in a statement said that the division is expecting to receive more than 65,000 petitions during the first five business days of this year’s programme.
- The agency will monitor the number of applications that they have received once the H-1B cap has been met. If USCIS receives more than the required petitions during the first five business days, then the division will use a lottery system and will therefore randomly select the number of petitions required to fulfill the cap. Also, successful H-1B applicants of last year were selected from a lottery system as well.
(Source: The Indian Express)