H1B Visa Lawyer – New Bill Could Increase Cap on H-1B Visas

With only a few weeks left for filing H1B visas, we are so busy at the office with last minute filings. In the next few weeks, we will be finalizing all the cases currently open and will be accepting new cases that have a chance to be filed before the April 1 deadline. Our biggest problem is cases with foreign degrees, such degrees must be evaluated before filing, and the later we receive the degrees, the harder it will be for us to file.

Still the biggest question that clients are asking, will the Government increase visa numbers before April 1 or in the near future.

Major corporations praised a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress that would double the number of immigrant worker visas available each year under the H-1B program.

The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, would increase the cap in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently, there’s a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields.

The legislation would increase the H-1B cap to 180,000 in 2010 to 2015 if the 130,000 cap is reached the year before. Read more here

I will keep you posted on the situation with this Bill and with the madness at our office s we battle the H1B deadline.