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US H-1B visa processing starts this week

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This is a reminder that the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will start accepting H-1B visa applications again from 1 April 2010 for the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY2011) quota.

The H-1B visa category was created in 1990. It has been a very useful visa category for companies to bring in highly skilled professional level workers. In recent years the H-1B visa quota has been fully used up almost as soon as they have become available. Probably this year it is unlikely that the H-1B visa will be used up so quickly. However, nobody really knows how long the H-1B will be available for.

If you wish to come under the H-1B you need to be in a specialty occupation that generally requires you to have a bachelors degree or higher or you need to be a fashion model. As in the previous years there are 65,000 H-1B visas available for FY2011. There are also 20,000 H-1B petitions for those with an US Masters Degree or higher in the US.