US H1B filling for 2019 opens from April

The US H1B visa filing season, which allows American companies to recruit overseas workers, will open on 2 April 2018 for the fiscal year 2019 (beginning from 1 October 2018). This was confirmed by USCIS officials on 6 March.

In the last one decade, most of these work visas have been bagged by Indian firms. People aspiring for H1B visas, this time, are well aware that under the stipulated ceilings, skill or their CVs strength will not play any role. Henceforth, all that will matter is their luck in the random lottery.

USCIS was quoted by Firstpost as saying that since 2 April falls on a Monday, which is not a federal holiday, applications will be accepted from that day. It added that applications would be accepted for the first five business days.

Applications cannot be filed beyond six months before the start date of employment. Warning applicants, USCIS said that it will reject applications that do not mention a specific start date, and it won’t accept words like ‘ASAP’ or ‘subject to approval’.

The cap numbers for H1B for 2019 will remain the same, but changes have been made to the rules under which they will be issued.

USCIS will continue to issue 65,000 new H-1B visas for employment in the fields of engineering, information technology and science. This is said to be the ‘regular cap’.

Employees with advanced degrees from American universities will be granted 20,000 new H1B visas under the ‘masters’ cap’.

Exempt also from the fiscal ceiling are H1B employees at specific educational institutions and non-profit organisations. All H1B visas have a three-year cut-off and can be renewed for up to six years.

Lottery, which is a random selection process, will be made use of for deciding which petitions will be accepted for judging.

This time, however, there will be increased scrutiny and more paperwork for vetting the applications, the likes of which have not been witnessed in the last 27 years.

If you are looking to migrate to the US, talk to Y-Axis, the world’s No.1 immigration and visa company, to file a petition.