Close X
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
ADVT 
International

H-1B Visa Holders May Work For More Than One Employer, Clarifies US Agency

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Dec, 2017 01:06 PM
    Foreign workers in the US on a H-1B work visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, may work for more than one company, the country's immigration agency has said. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. 
     
     
    The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. "In general, H1B workers may work for more than one employer but must have approved I-129 for each," the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency which receives and determines the successful applications for H1B visas, tweeted yesterday.
     
     
    "New employer must submit an I-129 petition before you may begin working," the USCIS said.
     
     
    Form I-129 is a form submitted for a non-immigrant worker to the USCIS used by employers or prospective employers to obtain (or amend the details of) a worker on a non-immigrant visa status. While this is not a new rule, but very few people know about it. The H1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.
     
     
     
    Additionally, H1B workers who are petitioned for or employed at an institution of higher education or its affiliated or related nonprofit entities or a nonprofit research organisation or a government research organization are not subject to this numerical cap. Meanwhile, an American think-tank, the Cato Institute in a report said that in 2015, a total of 56 per cent of all supposed employment-based green cards went to the family members of workers. 
     
     
    The other 44 per cent went to the workers themselves. If family members were exempted from the quota or there was a separate green card category for them, an additional 76,711 highly skilled immigrant workers could have earned a green card in 2015 without increasing the quota.
     
     
    According to the institute, about 85 per cent of those who received an employment-based green card in 2015 were already legally living in the US. "They were able to adjust their immigration status from another type of visa, like an H-1B or F visa, to an employment-based green card. Exempting some or all of the adjustments of status from the green card cap would almost double the number of highly skilled workers who could enter," it said.
     
     
    In a blog post, Immigration Attorney Tsion Chudnovsky said immigration lawyers are seeing a big change in how visas are being processed in 2017 and many expect denial rates to increase to 40 per cent in this year's H1B cap. The USCIS has started challenging H1Bs which would have no problem being approved in the past, she said.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Five Girls Were Killed For Dancing In Pakistan. Then The Story Took An Even Darker Twist.

    Five Girls Were Killed For Dancing In Pakistan. Then The Story Took An Even Darker Twist.
    It was just a few seconds, a video clip of several young women laughing and clapping to music, dressed for a party or a wedding in orange headscarves and robes with floral patterns

    Five Girls Were Killed For Dancing In Pakistan. Then The Story Took An Even Darker Twist.

    Terror Groups Retain Safe Havens In Pakistan: Pentagon

    Afghan-oriented terrorist groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani Network retain freedom of action from inside Pakistani territory, the Pentagon has said, while asserting that the US has been clear in urging Islamabad to deny safe havens to terror outfits.

    Terror Groups Retain Safe Havens In Pakistan: Pentagon

    101-Year-Old British Man Found Guilty Of Child Sex Offences

    101-Year-Old British Man Found Guilty Of Child Sex Offences
    A 101-year-old man, thought to be the oldest person convicted in British legal history, was today found guilty of historical child sex offences. Jurors found Ralph Clarke from Erdington, Birmingham, guilty of 21 counts of abusing two girls in the 1970s and 80s.

    101-Year-Old British Man Found Guilty Of Child Sex Offences

    Muslim Woman Dragged By Her Hijab In Busy London Shopping Area

    Muslim Woman Dragged By Her Hijab In Busy London Shopping Area
    Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), the UK's anti-Islamophobia group, called the latest incident "horrific" and said women were being disproportionately targeted in attacks on Muslims.

    Muslim Woman Dragged By Her Hijab In Busy London Shopping Area

    Yahoo Faces Proposed Canadian Class Action Over Compromised User Info

    Yahoo Faces Proposed Canadian Class Action Over Compromised User Info
    TORONTO — Yahoo is now facing a proposed class action on behalf of Canadians whose personal information may have been stolen.

    Yahoo Faces Proposed Canadian Class Action Over Compromised User Info

    Ivanka Trump Could Be The Most Powerful First Lady Ever

    Ivanka Trump Could Be The Most Powerful First Lady Ever
    First ladies aren't always presidential spouses. In fact, two early uses of the title refer to the beautiful, popular Harriet Lane, niece of James Buchanan, the only lifelong bachelor president. 

    Ivanka Trump Could Be The Most Powerful First Lady Ever