H-1B Visa Petitions Accepted Starting April 1

Author: Ashley Shaw, XpertHR Legal Editor

March 2, 2015

On April 1, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B visa petitions for the 2016 fiscal year. As always, an employer needs to file the appropriate paperwork as soon as possible as there are only a limited amount of these visas available, and, in years past, the quota has been filled within days. Otherwise, an employer may risk not being able to hire desired foreign workers.

Each year, there are only 65,000 new H-1B visas available and only 20,000 additional visas offered for foreign nationals holding a master's degree or higher from an US institution. The cap for submissions for all H-1B visa petitions was reached by April 7, 2014 for the 2015 fiscal year, and was reached by April 5, 2013 for the 2014 fiscal year. However, this was two months before the cap was reached for the 2012 fiscal year. After all accepted work visa petitions have been filed with the USCIS, the accepted petitions may be chosen through a random process (i.e., a lottery) if the cap is reached.

H-1B visas are granted to foreign workers who will work in a specialty occupation. A specialty occupation is one that requires at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent in the field of study required for that position.

If an employer's petition is not approved or is filed after the cap is reached, it will have to wait until the following year to re-file, unless it is part of an organization that is exempt from the cap. On the other hand, if the petition is accepted, a visa filed for the 2016 fiscal year will go into effect on October 1, 2015 if the employer is not an organization exempt from the cap or if the worker does not currently have H-1B status.