From Now On, Getting A US H-1B Visa Could Prove To Be A Tough Task

A tough job is on cards for those trying to get H-1B visas that allow United States (US) companies to hire foreign workers for special occupations requiring a high degree of expertise. The process for filing H-1B visas began Monday (2 April) amidst unprecedented scrutiny by the Donald Trump administration, reported ANI.

According to the report, there will likely be no tolerance even for minor errors by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in granting the temporary, non-immigrant H-1B visas, with the rate of rejection likely to be much higher.

The rejections have already increased after Trump took over as the US President in January 2017. A lot of technology companies in the US hire computer and information technology graduates from India and China while Indian software firms send their employees to the US on the H-1B visa.

The Financial Express had reported last week that a total of 30 companies cornered 35,120 visas of the 65,000 visas that the US gave during 2014-15 fiscal (October-September). Of the 30, 19 were based in the US, nine in India and two in France. US-based companies got 18,904 H-1B visas allocated, while Indian firms received 15,136 visas.

The US has imposed an annual cap of 65,000 for H-1B visas following a law passed by the Congress. However, foreigners holding US post-graduate degree are exempt from the cap if they are among the first 20,000 applications filed by the beneficiary companies.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has also warned that all duplicate applications will be rejected. Earlier, companies filed such applications to increase the chances of the applicants to get the visa - allocated through a method of lottery. The agency also said that applications seeking early employment start date or as soon as possible would be rejected.

Also, much to the chagrin of the aspirants, the agency has not made it clear if the computerised draw of lots will continue like the previous years. Indian companies applications are like to face greater scrutiny in view of a general campaign against highly skilled Indian professionals, the report said.

Already, the US has been discouraging Indian companies from seeking H1B visas by prescribing a higher fee of $6,000 per application. In addition, this year the applicants will have to provide the last five years details of their social media accounts. A notification was issued by the Department of State on 30 March on the new requirements of social media accounts. The rule will come into force after 90 days.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has made it clear that foreign workers would be given H1-B visas only if there was a shortage of qualified workers in the US as it felt that qualified US workers are being ignored. The US government has decided to visit, interview and investigate H-1B applicants to ensure that eligible US citizens are not disadvantaged.

Meanwhile, the US government has suspended processing premium H1-B visas until September to process long-pending petitions for visas.