H1B or specialty occupation visas are available to skilled workers who have attained the equivalent of a US college or university education or relevant training. Emigrants or those educated outside the USA are required to have a relevant or partly relevant degree, plus three or more years of work experience in the target position. For anyone seeking to practice their profession, such as medicine, law or accountancy, a relevant state or federal licence is required.

The dependents of aliens holding a US work visa are prohibited from working in the USA unless they qualify for a work visa in their own right and have a US employer that will sponsor them. Nevertheless, dependents of the US visa holder may study in the country. They must obtain their derivative visas at the same time as the principal US visa holder.

H1B visa holders can remain in the USA for three years, though the duration of stay can be extended to six. Despite this limit, H1B visa holders are not required to stay for a specific period in the job, which they originally sought when they applied for visa.

The H1B visa gives equal opportunities to professionals, new graduates and skilled workers alike to gain employment inside the US. The H1B further gives its holders a chance to pursue US permanent residency or a green card in the future, should they wish to stay in the country for good.

The first thing an H1B applicant needs to do is to scout for potential employers who would sponsor their application. In a sense, the process is easier for the applicant because once they have found an employer who is willing to sponsor them; the sponsor takes care of the H1B Visa Application. The internet is a good place to start for applicants to search for openings in US-based companies.

The H1B Visa programme is open to all applicants who have a specific occupational specialty such as: IT, Accounting, Medical, Legal and Hospitality. The good thing about the work visa is that it is valid for six years, and can be extended pending the applicant’s employment terms in the sponsoring company. The visa also allows the applicant to bring his or her spouse and dependent children to live in the states. All they have to do is to apply for a H4 visa, which takes care of their residency, though it doesn’t allow them to work in the US.

Due to the sponsorship programme included in the H1B visa process, it is considered as one of the easiest to obtain, and the one which benefits hardworking individuals and breadwinners the most.

The regulations describe “specialty occupation” as requiring practical and theoretical application of a body of highly specialised knowledge in the fields of human endeavour, which include engineering, mathematics, architecture, biotechnology, social sciences, business specialties, law, theology, arts, and accounting. They require a state licensure, and a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Similarly, the foreign worker should hold a state licensure and at least a bachelor’s degree, if needed to practise in that field.

The period of stay is three years, with maximum duration of six years. An exemption to the maximum length of stay applies in specific conditions. If an application for labour certification has been filed and is pending for at least 365 days, you will be granted a one-year extension; and a three-year extension if an I-140 Immigrant Petition has been approved.

The number of aliens who may be issued a visa or provided an H-1B status was limited to 65,000 under current U.S. Law. (The numerical restriction was provisionally raised to 195,000 in FY2001 until FY2003.) Additionally, all H-1B non-immigrants working at non-profit research facilities and universities are excluded from the cap. This only means that the contractors who are not directly employed by the institution might be exempt from the ceiling.

Laws also exclude from the cap on H-1B visas more than 20,000 foreign nationals who hold master’s degree or other higher degrees from U.S. universities. Free Trade Agreements also permit removal from the numerical limit of 5,400 for Singapore nationals and 1,400 for Chilean nationals.

The Department of Homeland Security approved approximately 132,000 H-1B visas during 2004 and 117,000 in 2005.

Back in the year 2007, the US H-1B cap or quota for 2008 was set at 65,000. This means that they will only accept 65,000 foreign employees to come to the US and start work for year 2008. However, in 2007, the quota was filled in just one day. The petitions or applications have exceeded the quota for over a 2 to 1 ratio. In the previous year in 2006, the cap for 2007 working visas was filled in about seven weeks. It was already a record during that time. Imagine the surprise when in 2007, the US working visa cap for 2008 was filled in one day. They received about 150,000 H-1B petitions on the first day the application process was opened.

After this all time record, companies have been constantly appealing to the Congress for an increase in the cap. Although there is an extra 20,000 H-1B exemptions for master graduates of US universities, the cap is still thought to be not enough. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems are just a few requesting increases from the Congress. However, there is still no definite answer.