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Keeping up with the times is easier said than done. Towards that end, here are some of the questions that people think of when it comes to the H1B visa but never truly get the answers to. Here are some of those very questions and their answers in detail.
H1B Visa: What Makes It Difficult to Get?
As popular as the H1B visa program is, mainly due to the favourable duration and fast processing time, it comes with disadvantages. You need to keep track of all its disadvantages before deciding on your plans to work in the US. Here are a few H1B visa downsides you must consider before signing up.
Lottery
The H1B visa’s main disadvantage is the annual limit on how many visas should be approved. While the limits are much lower in other immigration schemes, the H1B visa is extremely popular and receives three times more applications than all the other visas. The visas are approved through a randomized lottery system, which means a lot of your visa approval depends on your luck and your odds of being chosen by the lottery. But you can always manoeuvre through this by opting for a cap-exempt status, so do look for government agencies, NGOs, and educational institutions exempted from this annual cap.
Extensions
Compared to various popular visas like the E2, O1, and TN classifications, the H1B visa has a fairly longer duration of stay, but you can only extend your stay for as long as six years. But with the other aforementioned visas, you get much longer extensions, and sometimes, you can also extend your duration indefinitely. However, this is not the case with the H1B visa.
But under certain circumstances, you can extend your H1B visa beyond the six-year limit. You can contact your immigration attorney for more guidance.
Inflexible Dates
The H1B visa comes with a strict deadline, mainly because of the lottery process and the high amount of applications received by the USCIS for this particular visa. You cannot file your petition until April 1st. And if your petition is selected and approved, you can’t start your job until the 1st of October of the same year. Your premium processing also offers fewer benefits in the case of H1B.
You can avail of other visa schemes for a more fluid timeline for petitioning and starting employment.
Job Offer
The H1B visa is employer-sponsored, which means that your employer can only file the petition on your behalf. Finding sponsors for H1B can be a difficult task.
If you don’t have a job offer from a US-based firm, you can apply for the E2 and O1 visas, which do not require a job offer.
Fees
Despite the USCIS rules stating that your employer must pay all H1B petitioning fees, the steep fee scale can discourage employers from sponsoring you. The overall expenditure amounts to about $7,000 for your H1B visa.
But you can apply for a TN visa, which can cost as little as $500.
Employee Exploitation
The H1B visa is extremely prone to misuse and exploitation. There have been many unlawful contractual working schedules of employees. This can lead to deportation.
It would help if you were extremely careful while selecting your employers and ensuring a fair and lawful working environment to avoid the above.
Does Your Country Matter for an H1B Visa?
The H1B visa is a beacon of hope for people worldwide. It is an immigration program for people in the category of specialization occupations. The H1B visa is a dual-intent employer-sponsored visa. However, many people tend to be sceptical about being rejected based on their country. This is a dicey question, considering the recent developments in the existing visa policy.
The H1B visa offers no restrictions in terms of your home country. People worldwide can avail of this visa program if they meet the requirements and criteria. But at the same time, the Trump administration, in a recent policy change, introduced a travel ban for Muslim-majority countries in the wake of the imminent threat of terrorism.
This sparked a global controversy, and many Muslims were deported and barred from entering the US. This move was purely xenophobic and considerably impacted the travel plans of many Asian citizens and people from the Middle East.
However, the bottom line is that as long as you have the required qualifications and a job offer and meet all the other requirements listed by the USCIS, your visa application will be approved without prejudice.
However, it is difficult to say anything about some Muslim nations, as the Senate and the Consulate must ratify many proposed changes, and many hopefuls await the final verdict. Conjectures point out this is a temporary move, while many others assert that this may be a permanent change in the immigration system. There have been instances of the Consulate refusing entry to citizens depending on their relationship with their home country.
Minimum Wage of H-1B Holder Increased by $30,000
There had been quite a lot of speculations about H-1B rule changes. Finally, the verdict is out. Many people thought the US government would increase the minimum required wage to $100,000. But it isn’t that bad. The federal government increased the $60,000 by $30,000 to $90,000. The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill on Thursday morning. Some sources say the bill was also mentioned to impose further restrictions on Indian IT professionals and software engineers who mostly use the H-1B to come to the US.
The bill will now move on to the Senate for approval, after which it will be sent to the White House for approval. Once it is approved, the bill will turn into a law. Foreign workers replacing locals at the workplace has been Trump’s biggest target since he took over in January 2017. After the bill is passed, many Indian freshers will have to drop their hope of working in the US because no one will give a recent graduate as much as $90,000 as an annual salary.
While Indian techies in the US are vulnerable, the Indian government has done almost nothing about it. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, said she raised the H-1B visa issue strongly with Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, during his visit to India recently.
India’s Contribution to the US economy
A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry reveals that Indian companies have created 113,000 jobs in the US. These companies have also invested $18 billion in the US. The companies have also contributed $147 million for corporate social responsibility activities and $588 million as research and development expenses in the US.
Considering the contribution, which is the highest by any country, the US government should relax the rules for Indian techies.
Last Updated on by Sathi Chakraborty
