H1B Visa Lawyer

The  H-1B visa is the most common type of business visa.   The H1B is a nonimmigrant visa for foreign workers in “specialty occupations,” such as accountants, computer professionals, physicians,  market research analysts, financial analysts, teachers, architects, etc.

In order to offer H1B sponsorship to a foreign employee, the employee must have at least a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, and the field of study must be related to the job being offered.  The job offered must usually require at least a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

Our H1B visa lawyer provides immigration assistance with all stages of the H1B process.  Please contact us if you would like to sponsor a foreign employee for an H1-B visa.

H1B Cap

The H-1B visa has an annual cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from the cap.  Additionally, H-1B workers who are petitioned for or employed at an institution of higher education or its affiliated or related nonprofit entities or a nonprofit research organization, or a government research organization are not subject to this numerical cap.

Fiscal Year 2012 H-1B Filing Season

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B visa applications pursuant to its Fiscal Year 2012 quota on April 1, 2011.  The earliest starting employment date for petitions approved under the FY2012 H-1B cap is October 1, 2011.

On November 23, 2011, USCIS received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the cap of 65,000 for fiscal year 2012.  November 22, 2011 was the final receipt date for new H-1B petitions.  USCIS will reject all cap-subject petitions that arrived or will arrive after November 22, 2011.   The filing season for H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2013 will begin in April 2012.