Washington: The US will start accepting
the applications for H-1B visas, most sought after by Indians,
from April one for the fiscal 2011.
In a statement, the US Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) said it will accept petitions for 65,000 H-1B
visas as mandated by the Congress.
"Cases will be considered accepted on the date that it
takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct
fee; not the date that the petition is postmarked," the
statement said.
The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of
individuals who have earned a US master`s degree or higher are
exempt from this 65,000 cap.
If needed, USCIS will randomly select the number of
petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the
petitions received on the final receipt date, the statement
said.
Petitions for new H-1B employment are exempt from the
annual cap if the beneficiaries will work at institutions of
higher education or related or affiliated non-profit entities,
non-profit research organizations or governmental research
organizations.
US businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign
workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or
technical expertise in specialized fields, such as scientists,
engineers, or computer programmers.
Last year, mainly attributable to the economic
recession, the cap on H-1B visa was reached on December 22.
This was unlike previous years when the cap was
reached within the first few days of USCIS starting to accept
H-1B petitions. As a result, USCIS had to resort to
computerised draw of lots to determine successful applicants.
Because of stringent monitoring provisions and general
economic recession, there has been a sharp drop in the number
of Indian receiving H-1B visas in the last few years, official
figures reveal.
For instance, the Infosys which received as many as
4559 H-1B visas in the fiscal 2008 and was on top of the list
of companies receiving this coveted work visa for
professionals; received just 440 H-1B visas in the fiscal 2009
(October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009), according to the
latest figures released by the US Citizens and Immigration
Services.
Similarly, Wipro, which in 2008 got 2,678 H-1B visas,
received just 1,964 H-1B visas in 2009; but still topped the
list in the fiscal 2009.
In 2008, four out of the top five companies bagging
the maximum number of H-1B visas were grabbed by Indian
companies. These were Infosys (4,559), Wipro (2678), Satyam
(1917) and Tata Consultancy Services (1539).
Microsoft with 1037 H1-1B visas was the only US
company to figure in top five.
However, the situation has changed dramatically in the
year 2009.
While three of the top five positions are still being
grabbed by Indian companies, none of them except for Wipro
crossed the 1,000 mark. Wipro (1,964) is followed by (1318)
and Intel (723) then by IBM India (695) and Patni Americans
(609).
Satyam is ranked far below with juts 219 H-1B visas in
2009 as against 1,917 in 2008. Another major Indian IT company
Cognizant had just 233 H-1B visas as against 467 in 2008.
PTI
