Employment-Based Immigration Law

H-1B Visa Cap Is Reached August 25, 2005 The general allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2006 has indeed been exhausted, and the fiscal year has not even yet begun. The allotment of 20, 000 H-1B visas for graduates of U.S. advanced degree programs has not been exhausted and visas for this category of workers continue to remain available. Under federal law, the fiscal year runs from October 1 and through September 30. Petitions for H-1B workers may be filed by employers up to 6 months in advance of the date the worker is to commence their duties. Thus, […]

H-1B Work Visa Numbers Starting To Dwindle for Fiscal Year 2006 August 1, 2005 Although fiscal year 2006, which starts on October 1, 2005 and runs through September 20, 2006, has yet to arrive, the H-1B visa supply for this period is starting to dwindle. As of August 1, 2005, out of the allotment of 65,000 for the coming fiscal year (FY 05’s allotment is long gone), 21,252 cases have been approved and an additional 27,788 are pending. That leaves roughly 10,000 visas remaining for FY 06 from the general allotment. Pursuant to recent legislation, in addition to the supply of […]

20,000 Additional H-1B Visas Become Available for Fiscal Year ’05 May 5, 2005 As promised, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service has finally set forth a procedure by which US employers and foreign national workers can access the additional 20,000 H-1B visas Congress recently made available for the remainder of fiscal year 2005, running through September 30, 2005. However, the additional 20,000 visas will only be available to foreign professional workers who have obtained a master’s degree or higher from an institution of higher learning in the US. Petitions requesting one of these 20,000 visas are to be filed with CIS’ […]

Current Availability of H-1B Work Visas April 22, 2005 No doubt about it, the annual allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas for foreign professional workers dries up pretty quick. Within just a few months after the Citizenship and Immigration Service’s fiscal year begins, US businesses are now left without options to employ foreign professional workers because the meager supply of H-1B visas is exhausted. With the fiscal year starting on October 1 each year, by December or January the H-1B visas are usually gone – as was the case this year, and companies and foreign workers must wait until April 1 of […]