US gearing up to fill 20,000 H1B visas

S Rajagopalan

Washington, March 6, 200523:07 IST

A fresh run on the US's coveted H-1B visas is on the cards as immigration authorities get set to receive applications shortly to fill a newly created category of 20,000 visas.

Indian and other foreign students pbutting out of American universities with master's or doctorate degrees will be able to apply under this scheme that aims at helping the US to maintain a compebreastive edge.

Provisions of the H-1B Visa Reform Act, pbutted by the US Congress last November, come into force on March 9. But the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has advised employers not to file the new H-1B pebreastions until the new guidance is published in the Federal Register.

In anticipation of the rush, the USCIS has said it will reject any new H-1B pebreastion that is filed in advance of the effective filing date as established in the forthcoming Federal Register notice.

This new lot of 20,000 work visas will be over and above the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas. It could benefit many Indian students who have been waiting in the wings after completing their post-graduation or doctoral programmes in the US.

This year's regular quota of 65,000 visas was snapped up on day one of the American fiscal year on October 1, 2004. The extraordinary rush was attributed to the slashing of the quota from 195,000 to 65,000 with effect from October 1, 2003.

"To take advantage of this increase in the cap for fiscal year 2005, employers will need to act quickly, because the available slots are expected to be oversubscribed," says John Lindsey, a member of the law firm Daniels Daniels & Verdonik.

H-1B visas allow non-US citizens to take up specialty occupations on a temporary basis, of up to six years. In recent years, these visas have been dominated by Indian computer engineers, programmers and database administrators.

Fees have been revised to $ 1,500 for the H-1B visas in respect of companies with more than 25 employees. In addition, a $500 fee will be collected on every application in order to fund initiatives to detect and prevent visa fraud.