America gearing up to fill 20,000 H-1B visas

Indian students passing out of US universities with master's or doctorate degrees will be able to apply under it.

A fresh run on the US's coveted H-1B visas is on the cards as immigration authorities get set to receive applications shortly to fill a newly created category of 20,000 visas.

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Indian and other foreign students passing out of American universities with master's or doctorate degrees will be able to apply under this scheme that aims at helping the US to maintain a competitive edge.

Provisions of the H-1B Visa Reform Act, passed by the US Congress last November, come into force on March 9. But the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has advised employers not to file the new H-1B petitions until the new guidance is published in the Federal Register.

In anticipation of the rush, the USCIS has said it will reject any new H-1B petition that is filed in advance of the effective filing date as established in the forthcoming Federal Register notice.

This new lot of 20,000 work visas will be over and above the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas. It could benefit many Indian students who have been waiting in the wings after completing their post-graduation or doctoral programmes in the US.

"To take advantage of this increase in the cap for fiscal year 2005, employers will need to act quickly, because the available slots are expected to be oversubscribed," says John Lindsey, a member of the law firm Daniels Daniels & Verdonik.

H-1B visas allow non-US citizens to take up specialty occupations on a temporary basis, of up to six years. In recent years, these visas have been dominated by Indian computer engineers, programmers and database administrators.

Fees have been revised to $ 1,500 for the H-1B visas in respect of companies with more than 25 employees. In addition, a $500 fee will be collected on every application in order to fund initiatives to detect and prevent visa fraud.