Petitions for H1-B Visas for US Starts From April 2, to Suspend Premium Processing Temporarily
The USCIS has said that the temporary suspension of H-1B premium processing would help reduce the overall H-1B visa processing time.
Petitions for H1-B visas, which is very popular among Indian IT professionals will be accepted from April 2, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Wednesday. H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
The federal agency further announced the suspension of premium processing of all H-1B petitions which are subject to the annual caps.The USCIS has said that the temporary suspension of H-1B premium processing would help reduce the overall H-1B visa processing time. The H-1B petition filing is for fiscal 2019, begins from October 1, 2018.
Donald Trump administration had earlier this month delayed its decision on terminating work authorization for the spouses of H-1B visa holders until June. Last month, the Trump administration announced a new policy that made the procedure of issuing H-1B visas very tough. Under the policy, a company would have to go an extra length to prove that its H-1B employee at a third-party worksite has specific and non-qualifying speculative assignments in speciality occupation. There were news that Indian IT companies will be affected with this policy. However, industry veteran T V Mohandas Pai commented few days back that H-1B visa approval is unlikely to have any significant impact on Indian IT companies compliant with laws, but could "hurt" bodyshops that misuse the system.
Indian IT companies, which are among the major beneficiaries of H-1B visas, have a significant number of its employees deployed at third-party worksites. A significant number of American banking, travel and commercial services depend on on-site IT workers from India to get their job done. The US, which has taken a number of steps to tighten visa processes, accounts for over 60 per cent of India's IT export revenues. (With additional inputs from PTI)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 21, 2018 01:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).