High Demand for H-1B Visa Petitions Continues

Jenna is an intern with the firm and is not a practicing attorney.

Once again, demand for H-1B visa petitions greatly exceeded the supply, as predictably, the H-1B visa quota cap for fiscal year 2015 was reached quickly.  Within the first five days of the filing, USCIS reached the H-1B cap for the fiscal year, receiving approximately 172,500 H-1B visa petitions.  This marks a nearly 50,000 increase of H-1B petitions from the previous year.

Under the current H-1B program, USCIS approves no more than 65,000 H-1B visa petitions each fiscal year, plus an additional 20,000 petitions for professionals who have earned a graduate degree from a U.S. university or college.  A computer generated process randomly selects which visa petitions USCIS will process while unselected petitions are returned with filing fees.

This is the second consecutive year that the H-1B visa cap has been reached within five days. While the cap remains in place at 65,000, demand for H-1B visas continues to increase.  This means that statistically a dismal 37% of applicants received visas under the regular quota.  The problems with the low H-1B visa quota and USCIS’ reluctance to approve L-1B (intra-company transfer with specialized knowledge) visas, further causes problems for foreign professional workers seeking to work in the United States at a time when there appears to be no solutions coming from the Hill.

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About ABCs of Immigration Law
The global economy has become increasingly transactional and transcontinental. Since 9/11, there have been many amendments to immigration laws in the United States that have largely affected both individuals and businesses. Cozen O'Connor's immigration law blog, ABC's of Immigration Law, focuses on the interests and the challenges faced by those individuals and business impacted by immigration laws.
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