UNITED STATES: H-1B visa petitions opening 1st April

March 28, 2014


From the 1st April 2014, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be accepting H-1B visa petitions for the 2015 fiscal year. As with the 2014 fiscal year however, the USCIS will continue to be limited to issuing only 65,000 H-1B visa petitions despite previous demand from employers far surpassing any such cap.

As a result of such a high demand, employers are advised to file their petition applications as soon as possible, before the cap is inevitably met. Indeed, last year the annual cap was swiftly met within the first working week of the H-1B visa petitions opening for the 2014 fiscal year.

Nevertheless, if the number of petitions filed in this first week once again surpasses the annual cap, a lottery will be held, in which petitions for those applicants with advanced US academic degrees may still be issued.

Employers should note that rather than relying on the date an H-1B petition was postmarked, the USCIS will only consider a petition to be officially accepted upon the date they receive a properly filed petition, complete with the requisite fee.

Should you have any queries concerning US immigration, please feel free to contact us on 0207 0012121.