H1 b program

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Contact Us SHRM Page Information Page Properties. The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability. The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.

The law establishes certain standards in order to protect similarly employed U. Petitioners can only file one petition per beneficiary in any given calendar year.

If a petitioner submits more than one application, the petition or visa will be denied or revoked. The only exception to this is if the petitioner receives notice of a delay on the first filing. In this case, the petitioner can send a second petition with an explanation and withdraw the first. However, multiple companies in the same corporate family can submit a petition for the same beneficiary. Here, each entity must have their own Federal Employer Identification Number.

Additionally, they must have their own legitimate need to hire that beneficiary. It may also be possible to have an agent file an H1B petition. This person acts on behalf of the petitioner. An agent can file on behalf of multiple employers if the beneficiary will work with more than one entity. Note that if an agent files the petition, all requirements must still be met.

An immigration lawyer , including myself or a member of my team, would be happy to assist with your H1B filing.

The H1-B visa is a multistep process. The following is a general guideline followed by a more detailed explanation:. This applies to all employers applying for an H1B petition on behalf of any potential future H1B employees.

Note that this registration rule also includes the advanced degree applicants. For all H1B cap-subject petitions, a separate registration application is required. This must be done for each potential worker. If the electronic registration application is selected, petitioners can then submit Form I Previously, petitioners had to be submit the I every year, even without knowing whether their petition was chosen.

A registration will not be considered submitted unless the fee is rendered. Remember, you should submit two copies of your H1B petition.

One should be the original and the second, a copy, for consular processing. GOV and check the filing location based on your employment details. An immigration lawyer can assist you in determining where your petition should be mailed. Please note that the petition is considered received when it arrives at the Service Center.

All petitions received on the same day will be treated equally. If you are you chosen, keep in mind the requirements for keeping your status and filing your renewal. H1B extensions cannot be filed more than six months before the status expiration date. Thus, it is recommended that you begin preparing as early as possible.

Here, the petitioner can provide additional evidence to help support their filing. Failure to respond to either document or failure to provide adequate evidence in the response will mean the petition is rejected. Approved H1B petitions are valid for up to three years or through the validity period of the H1B petition, whichever is shorter. Please be aware that an H1B petition can be revoked if any of the facts listed in the petition substantially change or were fraudulently stated.

Upon receiving the approval, the foreign national can schedule an appointment at a US consulate. Note that you cannot apply for a visa more than 90 days before the start date of the job. Upon scheduling a consular interview, the foreign national will meet with a US consular officer and show them their I approval. Different consulates and individual situations require different forms. You will need to check the visa reciprocity schedule with the Dept.

H-1B beneficiaries may arrive in the United States up to 10 days before the start date of their petition and stay up to 60 days with some exceptions after the termination of their H1B status.

Upon arrival, you should present your passport, H1B visa, and Form I approval. You should ensure you receive an I card with accurate information. You should take care to note expiration dates for your status. Many documents are required during the H1B visa application process. The following is a general list.

Please be aware this is not a comprehensive list and the documents you will need will vary based on your individual case:. The following fees are paid for by the US employer or their representative. Yet, there may be other costs associated with the H1B visa application process. These include translations, photocopying fees, or transportation, which can be paid by the beneficiary.

Please be aware that all fees listed in this guide are subject to change. The amount of time it takes between an H1B filing and the receipt of an approval, depends on a wide range of factors. These factors include:. Additionally, regardless of approval date, beneficiaries will not be eligible to work until the October 1 st following the lottery.

Once a beneficiary begins working in the United States on an H1B, there are still several things you should note. If there is a change in worksite, a new labor condition application must also be submitted.

If the job ends unexpectedly, the beneficiary may stay for up to 60 days or until the visa expires, whichever is shorter.

During this time, the beneficiary may attempt to find a new employer to remain in the US but may not work. Here, an immigration lawyer can help you determine what steps are required to be in compliance with the H1B visa program.

Additionally, an H1B is valid for a maximum of three years. To stay for up to three additional years, an extension must be filed.

The request must be submitted while the beneficiary is still in valid H1B status. The extension does not have to be granted and does not have to be for the full three years. To strengthen the application, submit documentation showing the continued need for the H1B beneficiary. Items including, but not limited to, copies of pay records, work schedules, evaluations, and work produced by the beneficiary can be helpful. As stated, H1Bs are valid for a period of up to six years.

Yet, you should note that time spent in L status counts toward this six-year time period. However, this six year maximum only counts for time physically spent in the United States. If a beneficiary can demonstrate that they spent time outside the United States, that time does not count toward the six-year H1B maximum.

For example, if someone returned to their home country for one week each year for a total of six weeks, this time can be recaptured. Here, the beneficiary would be eligible to spend an additional six weeks in the United States on H1B status.

Please note that only full days spent outside of the United States can be recaptured. If any part of the day was spent in the United States such as a travel day, it is not eligible for recapture. While on an H1B, you can apply for permanent resident status.

Furthermore, those awaiting an immigrant visa priority date may be eligible to stay in the United States on an H1B for longer than six years. If you have any questions about the process of going from an H1B visa to permanent resident status in the United States, an immigration lawyer, such as myself or another member of my team, can provide further information. Immigration lawyers are intent on displacing as many US workers as possible — as they get a little bonus for every US worker they displace, in the form of the fees from processing foreign workers.

It could be said that the only occupation more anti-worker than the executive is the immigration lawyer. Immigration lawyers explicitly made it legal for employers to replace Americans with lower paid H1-B workers in nearly all cases.

The SCE workers are just the latest example of H-1B roadkill sanctioned by many of the lawmakers now complaining about it. In fact, two of the senators who signed the complaint — Sens. Richard Blumenthal D-Conn.

A more complicated story emerges from a novel analysis of public data conducted by Geoffrey Rhodes, general counsel at an IT services company in Columbia, South Carolina. Rhodes began poring over applications for H-1B visas looking for contact information for potential clients.

Out of curiosity, he began pulling documents whenever a company showed up in the news for displacing American workers. The information was available on each individual application, but absent from the program-wide data that can be easily downloaded from the website of the Department of Labor. So Rhodes wrote software that scraped thousands of applications and fed them into his own spreadsheets. Rhodes found that American tech companies are also utilizing large numbers of H-1B workers that are not highly skilled — they are just doing it through intermediaries.

First, the H1-B program was only intended to be used to access workers who were so skilled that the position would stay unfilled unless the H1-B candidate could be imported into the US.

However, the H1-B program has been so abused that virtually anyone can apply for it. This gets into the low standards of Indian undergraduate and graduate degrees which can primarily be purchased as well as a cottage industry of fake credentials.

The idea behind the visa program was to allow American companies to quickly hire foreign workers with needed skills, which would in turn boost the U. And at the outset of the program, laws were put in place specifically to protect American workers from being replaced by companies that might try to hire H-1B visa workers, and pay them less.

In the wake of the firings at Disney and Southern California Edison, there was outrage. A handful of Democratic and Republican Senators urged the Department of Labor to investigate potential visa abuse.

Employees filed lawsuits and complaints. Ultimately, nothing happened with these investigations because replacing American workers with H-1B workers is perfectly legal in many cases. In —during the tech bubble—lawmakers amended the law to provide more visas at the request of the growing tech industry.

Invariably the companies that do this, ranging from Disney to SCE to Cisco, have some corporate-speak to try to cover up and legitimize the fact, but the H1-B program was never intended to do this. The design of the H1-B program was to be for new positions where the skills could not be found domestically.