Date:16/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/16/stories/2006041603150300.htm

Back 1,600 H-1B applications in first three days of filings

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee

New Delhi , April 15

As the fate of the immigration reforms legislation, being hotly debated in US Senate, hangs in the balance, the rush to grab the coveted H-1B visas for fiscal 2007 has already begun. The steep demand for these visas can be gauged from the fact that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received as many as 1,631 H-1B petitions by April 3, 2006, the first working day after US began accepting visa filings for FY2007 on April 1, 2006.

According to the latest cap count for non-immigration worker visas for fiscal 2007 (which begins on October 1, 2006) against 1,631 filings that were received, 76 petitions have been approved and 1,555 were pending. The story is the same for H-1B Advanced Degree Exemption category where USCIS has received 340 filings against the stipulated cap of 20,000 for the year.

Of this, nine petitions have been approved, while 331 are pending as on April 3, 2006.

While the Senate debates the contentious immigration legislation that pitches for a proposed hike in H-1B cap to 115,000 annually, the current law pegs the annual ceiling at 65,000 for the H-1B category which spans computer programmers, engineers, architects, accountants and doctors. Besides this, Congress has also created an exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US universities.

With the exception of FY 2001-2003, the H-1B cap has been reached before the end of every fiscal year since 1996. In FY 2006, the cap was reached six weeks prior to the start of the fiscal year.