High demand for US H-1B visas - Apply now!

28 May 2012

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There has been a surge in demand for the popular US H-1B visas that companies use to bring graduate level highly skilled workers to the country. As of 18 May, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said that it has received about 42,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions out of the 65,000 available visas. This number is much higher than the 11,200 visa petitions filed during roughly the same period last year.

Additionally, USCIS have already received 16,000 H-1B visa petitions for foreigners with US advanced degrees out of the 20,000 available visas. This means that on 18 May 2012 there were only 18,000 visas left under the H-1B regular visa cap and 4,000 for the H-1B visa advanced degree level visa cap.

USCIS began accepting the applications for the popular H-1B visa program on 2 April 2012 for positions with a start date of 1 October 2012 or later. Each year only 65,000 visas are available for regular H-1B visa cap petitions for graduate level foreign workers in professional or specialty occupation positions. Also, an additional 20,000 visas are made available for those with an advanced degree from an US University such as an US Masters or higher degree.

While these numbers show a continued demand and a much higher rate of H-1B visa filings compared to last year, they are still quite low to filings in 2008 when the H-1B visa cap was reached in the first week of the application season.

If you are considering filing a cap-subject H-1B petition as part of the FY2013 quota we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. It is likely the cap will be reached within the next month or two and once the visa cap has been reached, USCIS will stop accepting H-1B petitions for FY 2013 and will not accept new applications until 1 April 2013.

If you would like to apply for a US visa, WorkPermit.com can help. WorkPermit.com is a specialist visa consultancy with nearly twenty-five years of experience dealing with visa applications. We can help with a wide range of visa applications to your country of choice. Please feel free to contact us for further details.