H-1B Visa

With the closure of H-1B visa registration on Mar 25, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will soon initiate the first round of issuance of the H-1B visa lottery system.

The registrations for the H-1B visa, which had an extended deadline of registration till Mar 25 (from earlier Mar 22) concluded recently.

Considering the high demand for the H-1B visa, the USCIS uses a lottery system for the issuance of the visa.

Every year, the US issues 85,000 H-1B visas, from which, a master’s cap of 20,000 visas is reserved for the advanced US degree holders. The remaining 65,000 acquire the visa through the H-1B lottery rounds.

According to USCIS, those who are selected will be notified on myUSCIS online account by Mar 31. The online form for the H-1B cap petition will be submitted from Apr 1 after that.

Recently, USCIS has also increased the visa fee from $10 to $110. The registration fee for the H-1B visa was also increased from $10 to $215.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to hire foreign workers. An H-1B visa is issued whenever a person is employed by a US company. Initially, this is valid for three years, which can be extended up to six years.

Indians are one of the most significant beneficiaries of the H-1B visas.

Also read:

US proposes sweeping changes to H-1B visa programme to curb fraud in immigration system