New Delhi: The United States immigration authorities announced that 2000 slots in the H1B visa category are still available for those holding American Master's degrees and other advanced degrees.
As of April 18, 2007, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services received approximately 18,000 H1B petitions for people with advanced degrees.
The agency is making its final tabulations for Fiscal 2008 and the expectation is that the total availability of 65,000 visas under the H1B general category will be used up.
Congress had mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H1B visas.
The US is yet to finalise a comprehensive Immigration Bill, but the H1B visa category is likely to see a hefty raise in the cap and also relaxations in the process leading to permanent residency or the "green card".
The other exemptions that do not fall under the mandated cap will be those with higher degrees from American institutions, those getting into positions of research and teaching at educational institutions and those seeking employment in the non-profit sector.
Comments
0 comment