The Hindu Business Line : Only 1,364 advance degree H1-B visas left out of 20,000

THE advance degree H-1B visas are disappearing fast with the latest update from US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) showing that only 1,364 visas are now available under this category.

Against the stipulated cap of 20,000 visas under the H-1B advance degree exemption for fiscal 2006, as many as 16,478 visa petitions had been approved, and 2,158 additional petitions were pending in December-end 2005, according to latest data by USCIS.

The rush for these visas before the limit gets exhausted is apparent from the fact that while 3,302 such visas were available on November 29, 2005, only 1,364 visas remain on offer now.

Under the current law, while the annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000 (down from 195,000 in financial year 2003), the Congress has created an exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US universities.

H-1B visas allow employers to have access to highly educated foreign professionals who have experience in specialised areas and who have at least a bachelor's degree or the equivalent.

Given the high demand for skilled temporary workers in the US, the 65,000 H-1B visas cap was reached even before the start of the Federal Government's fiscal year 2006 (which began on October 1, 2005), prompting organisations such as IT Association of America (ITAA) to demand a significant increase in the number of visas for the current year and future years.

In November, the US Senate cleared a provision approved by Senate Judiciary Committee for hiking the visa limit by 30,000.

However, the US House of Representatives passed its version of the Budget Reconciliation Bill which did not include the provisions related to the recapture of unused H-1B and immigrant visa numbers from the previous years as passed by the Senate, and instead imposed a $1,500 fee increase on intra-company L-1 visas.