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| Half a million applications for H1B visa likely this year
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| SifyNews.com
(Wednesday, February 13, 2008) |
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.
Run-up to Budget 2008-09: View Special
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. |
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