H-1B Professional Workers Visa

The H-1B professional workers visa, a dual intent visa is designed for foreign nationals seeking work in the United States. It is a very sought after and lawful method to bring foreign-born professionals to United States. The reason of its popularity among the foreign professionals is for the reason that H-1B paves their road to getting a permanent residency (Green Card) in United States. An individual on H-1B visa may work for six years in United States. However, a petition may not be granted for more than three years at a time. To be eligible for the H-1B visa, the employer must be able to demonstrate that the position the foreign national will hold requires someone in a “specialty occupation”. Therefore, the foreign national (or beneficiary) must meet the required qualifications. By United States law, a specialty occupation is defined as:

During each fiscal year, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (CIS) allows up to 65,000 foreign nationals to receive initial H1-B status, running from October 1 to September 30. Applicants should be aware that these numbers are reduced by the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which set aside 6,800 spots for workers from these two countries every fiscal year. Any unused FTA visas from a previous fiscal year may be recaptured and made available in the first six weeks of the following fiscal year. There is an additional quota of 20,000 H-1B visas that are reserved for foreign nationals holding a Master’s degree or higher awarded by an accredited college or university in the United States.

When considering applying for an H1-B visa, please keep the following in mind:

A spouse and/or unmarried child below the age of 21 can accompany the foreign national in H-4 status. They are not allowed to work in the United States unless they qualify for a work visa;
A foreign national may hold H-1B status for a maximum of six years, generally issued in increments of up to three years;
An extension beyond the six years is permitted under certain circumstances

This is just a brief overview of some of the eligibility requirements pertaining to a H-1B professional workers visa. There may be other stipulations in place, depending on your specific case. This can be complicated, so please contact one of our immigration attorneys for more information. To learn more about applying for an H1-B professional workers visa, please contact attorneys at Duke Seth, PLLC and schedule a consultation with one of our immigration attorneys today.

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