VADODARA, SEPTEMBER 04, 2004
TNN

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has advised that 40,000 H-1B petitions that would count toward the Fiscal Year 2005 (FY2005) cap have been received as of August 4, 2004. Of those petitions, 21,000 have been approved and the rest are 'in
the pipeline'.

The visa cap for FY2005 is 65,000. While, the American Immigration Lawyers' Association (AILA) has reported that although the FY2005 has not yet begun (October 1, 2004 - September 30, 2005), a major portion of the quota has already been exhausted.

The USCIS had began accepting H-1B filings for FY 2005 since April 1 of this year. And now, the dipping quota of H-1B even before the fiscal year begins may put many H-IB aspirants into inconvenience.

"As of now, 40,000 applications have been received for this visa which will be processed from October 01, 2004. This leaves 25,000 visas out of which 6,800 visas are committed by the US to Singapore and Chile by certain trade agreement. As a result, for the rest of the world, only 18,200 visas remain for the rest of FY 2005," says Dr Arun Vakil, a Mumbai-based immigration consultant.

The decision to revert the 195,000-person H-1B yearly quota to 65,000 on October 1 of the coming fiscal year, had itself given a clear indication that there is little possibility of increasing the H-1B cap this summer, say immigration experts.

This quota restriction may affect prospective Indian IT professionals seeking H1-B visas who may have to wait for a year or more to avail of the quota. Almost half of H-1B visa holders are Indians. Many of them have been employed by Indian IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro operating in the US.

These Indian companies now employ local Americans for their IT needs.

Many of these companies resort to L-1 visas, which are unlimited. Moreover, L-1 visas, meant for intra-company transfers, can be cleared within 2-3 weeks.With a validity period of 3 years, it also permits one's spouse to work in the US after 6 months. Last year, 54,817 L-1 professionals started work in the US, compared to 100,969 H-1Bs. Like the H-1Bs, Indian professionals are the largest L-1 species too, receiving a quarter of the visas issued in 2002.

However, students waiting for changes of status to H 1B, which may not occur before October 1, 2004 due to the cap being met early this year, can stay back in the US. "Foreign students qualify for the extended grace period only if their prospective employer has filed an H-1B petition in time on the student's behalf before July 30, 2004. The petition must include a requested start up date of October 1, 2004. A student is not entitled to work till then," clarifies Vakil.