US to accept H-1B visa applications from 1 April

The US will start accepting applications for H-1B visa, the most sought after work visa by Indian IT professionals, from 1 April, the US Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) said.

The H-1B, a non-immigrant visa, allows foreign workers to take up temporary employment with US employers.

The federal agency said it expects to receive enough applications to fill up the congressionally mandated numbers in the first five days itself, ie, by 5 April.

USCIS said with the improvement in the country's economy, and based on the feedback from companies, it expects the full quota to be utilised. This would also be for the first time since the economic crisis of 2008-2009 that the H-1B cap would be filled in the first few days itself, it added.

The cap, or the limited number of H-1B visas, that will be granted has been set at 65,000 for the fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2013.

However, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with a US Master's or higher degree are exempt from the cap of 65,000.

''Based on the feedback from a number of stakeholders, USCIS anticipates that it may receive more petitions than the H-1B cap between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013,'' the federal agency said in a statement, adding that it will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public of the date on which the numerical limit of the H-1B cap has been met.

If USCIS receives petitions more than the prescribed quota, it will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit.

The lottery for the H-1B cap was last used in April 2008, when the cap was filled on the first day itself.

Last year, it took 73 days for the USCIS to fill in the cap, while it took 235 days to receive applications to fill the 65,000 H-1B numbers in 2011; 300 days in 2010, and 264 days in 2009.

USCIS said it would reject petitions that are subject to the cap and are not selected, as well as petitions received after the necessary number of petitions have been received.

USCIS said applications would be considered accepted on the date the agency receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted.