The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced this week that it would begin accepting H-1B petitions on April 1, 2015, although the federal agency noted that the congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 annual visas would likely be exceeded within the first five business days of the 2015 programme.
The federal agency notified applicants via a press statement that if it received an excess of petitions during the first five business days, it would resort to a computerised lottery system to “randomly select the number of petitions required to meet the cap.”
USCIS would reject all unselected petitions that were subject to the cap as well as any petitions received after the cap has closed, the agency said, adding however that the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for individuals with a U.S. master’s degree or higher were exempt from the 65,000 cap.
U.S. businesses use the H-1B programme, created in 1990, to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialised knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.
The cap, deadlines and procedures are of most interest to applicants from India, who comprise the largest proportion of H-1B applicants overall.
For the financial year 2012, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security noted that of 262,569 H-1B visas approved applicants of Indian birth received 168,367, more than 64 per cent.
The visa in recent years has become enmeshed in the controversy surrounding a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform approved by the 113th U.S. Congress in April 2013.
Under that proposal, which ultimately did not clear the Republican-controlled House of Representatives before the Senate itself went to the Republicans in November 2014, aimed to increase the annual cap on the visas from 65,000 to 110,000, but also raise the fees and otherwise restrict companies that sought to employ individuals under this visa.
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