It has been the preferred visa for Indian IT companies and has helped them keep costs down and gain a margin advantage over multinational players by sending engineers to the US.
The Biden administration on Friday issued a formal notification to delay the implementation of the previous Trump regime's controversial rule to raise mandatory minimum pay for foreign workers on H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The Department of Labour in its federal notification published on Friday said that it is considering whether to propose a further delay of the final rule's effective date and accompanying implementation periods that are currently scheduled to take effect on May 14, 2021, and July 1, 2021, respectively.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received about 22,000 petitions for the much sought after H-1B work visas in the first four days after it started accepting applications on April 2, officials said.
US to start accepting H-1B petitions from April 1.
In a move that is expected to hit Indian IT companies, the US government has decided to hike H-1B visa fee from next fiscal.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it has received sufficient number of applications to reach the mandated cap of 65,000 for working professionals for the fiscal ending September 30, 2010.
The new rule stipulates that those who arrive on a work visa should work under the petitioner and not at a client's site.
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.
H-4 is issued to the spouse of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India.
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 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 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.
The new information required by the Department of Labour is significant because before sponsoring a foreign worker for the H-1B visa, the company needs to get its labour application approved by it.
The mandated Congressional cap is of 65,000.
Applications for H-1B work visa for the fiscal year 2013 would be accepted from April 2.
Officials said the Citizenship and Immigration Services would not issue daily update on number of applications received, but will make an announcement when the cap is reached.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday said that the lottery was done on April 7.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it has reached the cap on Congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B work visas, the most sought after by Indian professionals.
The US on Thursday introduced a new facility for premium processing of permanent residency, or Green Card, applications from foreign nationals that are willing to make heavy investment in US, resulting in creation of jobs.
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.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha that this is an issue of concern not just for the government and the Opposition, but the entire House and the nation shares this concern
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.
In a statement, US Customs and Immigration Services announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year 2011.
According to the latest figures released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, just 29,700 people had applied for H-1B visas till August 13.
Among IT services firm, Cognizant witnessed over 60 per cent of its initial applications rejected, followed by Capgemini, Accenture, Wipro, and Infosys. In 2018, the top six Indian firms got just 16 per cent or 2,145 H1B work permits.
The USCIS said this year it expects to receive more than 65,000 petitions.
Now White House would carry out its review of the proposed regulation, take inputs from various agencies, before taking a final call. The entire process could take from a few weeks to several months.
A year ago, when thousands of people were handed pink slips, the USCIS had received 42,000 H-1B applications.
The United States will start accepting the applications for H-1B visas, most sought after by Indians, from April one for the fiscal 2011.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the measures to enforce the provisions of the new Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which prohibits hiring of H-1B visa holders by American companies who receive the federal aid money.
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.
The H-1B visas coveted by highly-skilled professionals mainly from India appear to be losing its sheen thanks to the economic downturn in the US when for the first time in years there were fewer takers even one week after authorities began accepting applications.
The Premium Processing Service provides faster processing of certain employment-based petitions and guarantees a 15-calendar day processing time. Early this month, the USCIS said it needs additional time to assess whether it is possible to provide this level of service for nonimmigrant religious worker petitions. Due to the complexities with adjudicating R-1 visa petitions, USCIS cannot reasonably ensure a level of processing service within 15 calendar days, it said.
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.
While the denial rate has dropped slightly to 21 per cent in 2019 from 24 per cent in 2018, the National Foundation for American Policy has said it is much higher for Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro and very low for American companies like Amazon and Google. For instance, the denial rate for TCS and Infosys in 2019 was 31 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, whereas for Wipro it was 47 per cent and 37 per cent for Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, the denial rate for the new H-1B petitions in 2019 was just four per cent each for Amazon and Google. The denial rate for Microsoft during the same period was six per cent, and Facebook along with Walmart was just three per cent each.
"To ensure a fair and orderly distribution of available H-1B visas, USCIS will deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker and will not refund the filing fees submitted with multiple or duplicative petitions," the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said. The USCIS has sent the interim final rule for publication in the Federal Register for it becoming effective.
She was among 50 persons who were presented with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services', 'The Americans By Choice Awards'.
The United States immigration authorities have announced that 2,000 slots in the H1B visa category are still available for those holding American master's degree or advanced degrees.
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.
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