H-1B visa petitions to be accepted from April 2
Posted on: 21/Mar/2018 4:14:22 PM
The USCIS, or US Citizenship and Immigration Services has said that petitions for H-1B visas will be accepted from April 2. The H-1B petitioning is for the fiscal year 2019 beginning October 1, 2018. According to the agency, the suspension of premium processing of H-1B visas that are subject to annual caps. Between 2007 and 2017, it received the maximum number of 2.2 million H-1B petitions from high-skilled Indians. India was followed by China with 301,000 H-1B petitions during the same period.
The USCIS said, We will notify the public before resuming premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions or making any other premium processing updates. The temporary suspension will help the agency reduce processing time of H-1B and will be able to process long-pending petitions, which it has currently been unable to process due to the high volume of incoming petitions and the significant surge in premium processing requests over the past few years.
The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US masters degree or higher are exempt from the cap. Additionally, H-1B workers who are petitioned for or employed at an institution of higher education or its affiliated or related non-profit entities or a non-profit research organisation or a government research organisation are also not subject to this numerical cap.
