What’s New With The H-1B Visa Rules?

The H-1B Visa filing period for the financial year 2019 (beginning from October 1, 2018) will open on April 2, 2018. The officials of USCIS (the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) have confirmed the permit of U.S. industries to hire foreign employees in their country but with stringent standards.

Traditionally, Indian firms have led the raffles surrounding the visa shares every year but with less than 3 weeks to the deadline, the immigration lawyers go through a huge work cut in America and are amplifying on the visa-related abuse.

Talking about the “supply” sector, in particular, people who are applying under the specified “caps” comprehend that talent, strength, or skill of their CVs don’t play any role and it is just based on lottery luck that decides whether they are chosen or not.

New H-1B Visa Rules and Announcements

April 2, 2018 (Monday) will not be a federal leave and therefore, applications will be accepted even on that day. The USCIS confirms further that they will take the applications on the initial 5 working days and the applicants cannot file exceeding 6 months prior to the employee’s start date.

The USCIS warns the petitioners that the following declarations will be immediately rejected:

• Including words like ASAP or as soon as possible.
• Writing a phrase that has these words – subject to approval.
• Not mentioning the start date.

While the cap numbers of H-1B visa for the upcoming fiscal year remains unmodified, the subtexts have undergone a big transformation.

The Basic Number Facts:

• The USCIS will provide 65,000 fresh H-1B visas for occupations in the fields of IT (Information Technology), science, and engineering. This will be the “regular/usual cap.”
• The USCIS will distribute 20,000 fresh H-1B visas for professionals with high-end degrees from reputed U.S. universities. This will be the “master’s cap.”
• The H-1B employees at certain types of educational and non-profit organizations will be exempted from the “financial/fiscal cap.”
• Each H-1B visa also features a renewable for a maximum of 6 years and a cut off for 3 years.
• The USCIS will employ its selection process on a random basis or the so-called “lottery” to decide which petitions are accepted for the adjudication.

In the past 27 years, there was rarely a time when the H1B visa had so much paperwork and scrutiny. A group of powerful USCIS authorities briefed their stakeholders about H1B concerns recently. Though most questions have been the most vital in an H1B petition, Trump’s administration has clearly explained the rejection risks as well.

It is well known that the applications subject to RFEs (Request for Evidence) are rising significantly and one of the most frequent questions from the employers is how will the USCIS assess one’s exact wage levels associating to the H1B petition, attorney’s authorization, credential evaluations, and specialty occupation.

After the recent discussion, the USCIS representatives cleared that the new filing season for the H1B visa in April 2018 is going to be very strict and will adhere to the mentioned standards.

The H1B Visa Filing Fee For FY 2019

The fee towards H1B petition filing involves:

• Attorney fee – varies based on the company size
• Type of attorney involved in the case
• Other USCIS fees

As of the financial year 2018, the fee ranges between 1,600 USD and 7,400 USD + the charges for an attorney. The complete breakdown of the fee structure is given below: