Half a million applications for H1B visa likely this year

Hyderabad: Will the reports of US slowdown impact the H1B visa applicants from Indian techies? This will be known soon as the countdown for H1B visa, one of the most sought after visa category for professionals, particularly technology sector, is set to begin, with April 1 being the date for filing applications.

If the last year's experience is anything to go by, on day one, that is April 1, 2007, the H1B visa quota received more than two times the available pool of 65,000 visa applications and the US authorities were forced to opt for lottery system.

Significantly, while H1B visa continues to be a preferred category, several others such as L1, J1, H3 and even EB5 for those who invest up to $1 million in US business, are also being actively considered by applicants. Other than the H1B which has a quota, others actually do not have any cap.

Interacting with Business Line, US-based Immigration Attorneys, Thomas Joy and Jan Krasny, said that while most of large companies do have in-house expertise on these issues, careful planning and assistance from experts would help individual applicants go through the process smoothly and thereby have better prospect of securing one.

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The quota of 65,000 H1B is unlikely to be hiked this year. Being an election year, no politician would dabble into this politically sensitive issue even though the demand to hike the cap on this category is in the air for quite some time now, they explained.

The Executive Director of VisaPro Immigration Services, Venkat Ramineni, said that H1B continues to be the most sought after followed by L1. Lately, with cross border mergers and acquisitions, EB-5, as a visa category, too is catching up.

For entry in October 2007, they had to apply on April 1, 2007. On the day one, it received 1,50,000 applications. If the current appetite is any indication, this year, we may see about half a million applications for this category alone, Joy said.

To make it to the H1B category, professionals need to prepare from now for the right documentation, overseas educational qualification check and background verification. Importantly, they have better chances of securing one if they file on April 1.

According to experts, the L1 category, which allows for inter-company movement, is often an abused visa category where some companies are offering differential salaries. Such a flexibility in salary structure is not available for the H1B category.