After receiving a University or College degree, completing an F-1 program, or completing a J-1 program, many non-citizens desire a way to legally live in the United States and to have a career. An H-1B visa is their potential solution, which permits the non-citizen to legally work and live in the United States for up to a total of 6 years. H1-B visas provide an avenue for organizations and companies to obtain skilled and professional non-citizen employees, due to a shortage of available United States workers to fill all skilled job positions. The largest number of H1-B petitions are for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related employment positions; however H1-Bs visas apply to a large number of skilled, professional job positions.
The petitioner must establish to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) a number of mandatory conditions to receive H1-B approval: the employment is for a "specialty occupation", which means that the entry level educational requirement is at least a bachelor degree in fields related to the employment; the foreign visitor qualifies as a professional; and that Labor Condition Application (LCA) is certified by the United States Department of Labor. Some non-citizens are lawfully able to receive H1-B visas by substituting their work experience when they lack the educational requirement, however this is a very complicated legal area.
The policy of the United States government is to protect citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents from non-citizen labor competition, and encourage the hiring of US citizens and green card holders over all other qualified workers. Organizations and companies functioning in the United States cannot legally hire cheap foreign labor to reduce their operating costs. In order to ensure that the labor market is not undercut, H1-B laws require payment of wages to any foreign worker to be the higher of the actual (the wage paid to other workers in similar positions) or the prevailing wage (the average salary for workers in the relevant area of employment). With every H1-B petition that is sought the organization or company must attest that the employment of the non-citizen worker will not affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed United States workers, and the company or organization must also notify its own workers of the its' intention to hire an H1-B worker.
In order to limit the number of skilled foreign workers, the US government imposes a "H-1B cap", which limits the number of H1-Bs that will be authorized and processed each year by the USCIS. Based upon the large numbers of H1-B applicants and the limited number of available spots, a "H1-B lottery" is conducted by the USCIS to determine which petitions will be processed, and which ones will be rejected. One exception to the H1-B cap rules is for non-profit organizations, research institutes, educational facilities, and hospitals, which are sometimes allowed to petition non-citizen worker at any time during the year without cap considerations.
"Dual intent" is permitted for those who receive an H1-B visa from the USCIS after successfully winning the "H1-B lottery", which means that the non-citizen worker is permitted to maintain an intent to remain in the United States on a temporary or permanent basis. A organization or company is eventually allowed to petition for an employment based green card application to sponsor the non-citizen worker, which allows the the non-citizen worker to become a green card holder (Lawful Permanent Resident) upon approval.
It is recommended that you hire immigration law specialist Sufen Hilf of Hilf & Hilf, PLC to handle your H1-B case for a variety of reasons: first, Immigration laws are constantly subject to change, and you need someone who is up to date on changes in law and policy to properly handle your file; second, there are a number of situations that are more heavily scrutinized (for example: third party placement; positions at lower wage levels; H1-B visa transfers; positions that have low qualification or skill requirements; students on F-1 visas and OPT seeking a H1-B visa; etc.) which should be handled by a lawyer; third, there are many technical components to filing the H1-B petition, such as correctly completing and filing the petition, accurately providing prevailing wage information, responding to a Request for Evidence, etc. that also require a competent immigration lawyer's representation; fourth, having someone to answer questions and provide information concerning the file is an important and stress reducing part of the process. Contact Hilf & Hilf, PLC today for top rated immigration legal representation from a proven professional immigration lawyers.