Like last year, the agency will receive applications between April 1 and April 5. If the cap is not reached, it will continue to accept applications for five more days.
The United States will start accepting the applications for H-1B visas, most sought after by Indians, from April one for the fiscal 2011.
Given the rate at which the USCIS has now been receiving the H-1B applications on a daily basis, officials said it would not be a surprise that they announce that the cap has been reached before the end of this year.
Latest figures released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services show an increase in the number of people applying for H-1B visas in the last two months.
According to the latest figure update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, approximately 46,700 of the H-1B visas in the general category were filled up by September 25; against a Congressional mandated figure of 65,000.
Primarily meant for computers and information technology professionals, the H-1B visas have been one of the most sought after for foreign professionals in previous years. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service has been receiving several times the number of the allocated quota. However, this year, the USCIS is struggling to fill up the 65,000 H-1B visas as mandated by the US Congress.
Celebrations erupted across Assam with opponents of the bill bursting crackers, distributing sweets and breaking into frenzied dancing on the streets.
In a statement, USCIS said about 25,000 of the Congressional mandated 66,000 H2B visas are still left to be filled out for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009. On January 7, 2009 USCIS had announced to have received enough applications to fill Congressional mandated cap of 66,000 H-2B visas.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received only half the 65,000 H1-B applications it requires to fill up the general quota category in the first five day after it began receiving applications April 1.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B visa petitions for the fiscal year 2010 from Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Read on to find out all you wanted to know about H-1B visas.
In what can be good news for hundreds of Indian IT professionals seeking the H-1B work visa, the US' immigration agency has decided to conduct a rare second lottery for the most sought-after visas to decide on the successful applicants who could not make it in the first random selection. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that a decision was taken after determining that the computerised draw of lots for H-1B visas conducted early this year did not give them enough numbers of the Congressional mandated H-1B visas. The H-1B visa, the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
The bill will attempt to toughen the H-1B visa program.
Americans can adopt children orphaned by the December 26 quake and tsunamis in South Asia only when their countries of origin make them available for adoption, the US government has said.
Senators Grassley and Durbin release more data showing that Tata, Infosys, and others are using U.S. work visas to their advantage
Narayanan said she did not have an opinion about Trump's immigration policies and added that she found out that the ceremony aired during the Republican Convention "only when an excited friend called her later that night and told her she was on television," the report said.
The rush for these visas before the limit runs out is apparent from the fact that while 3,302 such visas were available on November 29, 2005 only 1,364 visas remain on offer at present.
This is the first time that the cap is reached on the first day of receiving the applications on April 2.
The Congressional-mandated cap of 65,000 H-1B visas and another 20,000 in the advanced degree categories were reached within the first five days after USCIS started accepted H-1B applications in April.
'There is no reason to anticipate a drastic change in Canada's attitude towards Indian students.'
US visa expert Dr Arun Vakil explains how to apply for a US work visa.
ITServe's lawsuit against the USCIS alleges that the agency has no authority to misinterpret the existing regulations and shorten the approval durations.
The Trump administration is reportedly moving ahead with its decision not to give work permits to the spouses of H-1B visa-holders, arguing that this displaces genuine American workers.
Earlier, immigration regulations had set a more stringent standard on the maximum time in H or L status, whether as a worker or an employee.
The USCIS announcement indicated that the US government is going to be tough and stringent in approval of H-1B visas this year.
Obama announced to take a series of executive actions, including a shift of immigration enforcement resources.
A Canadian parliamentary committee has voted unanimously to urge the border services agency to stop the deportation of nearly 700 Indian students who were duped by unscrupulous education consultants in India to enter the country with "fraudulent college admission letters."
Lower numbers signal that that companies, especially the technology services firms, are steadily reducing the dependency on non-immigrant visas.
This non-refundable fee will support the new electronic registration system to make the H-1B cap selection process more efficient for both petitioners and the federal agency, USCIS said.
US to start accepting H-1B petitions from April 1.
The US government has removed a regulation proposed by former president Donald Trump's administration that sought to narrow the definition of "specialty occupation" under the H-1B visa regime. The change comes as a relief for Indian information technology firms, which are among the largest users of such visas. "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has formally vacated a regulation that would have redefined the H-1B specialty occupation, restricted off site placement of H-1B employees, and otherwise increased employer compliance obligations. "The vacatur follows a federal court ruling that set aside the regulation because the agency did not have good cause to bypass notice and comment rulemaking, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act," explained immigration law firm Fragomen.
The Biden administration has indicated that it is still undecided on ending the Trump-era ban on issuing new H-1B visas, with the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserting that the US government's top priority is the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution. The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
The denial rate jumped from 4% to 41% for Tech Mahindra, from 6% to 34% for TCS, from 7% to 53% for Wipro and from just 2% to 45% for Infosys.
From May 26 onwards, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting applications for work visas from H-IB spouses, reports Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com.
The USCIS said this year it expects to receive more than 65,000 petitions.
Indian tech professionals are one of the major beneficiaries of H-1B visas.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency which receives and determines the successful applications for H-1B visas, said yesterday that it received 199,000 H-1B applications for the 2018 fiscal year.
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