On January 14, Republican and Democratic senators introduced legislation that would make it easier for U.S. employers to hire more foreign specialists in science, technology and engineering(full text, summary, AILA News Release).
Among the bill's provisions are the following:
- Increases the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and allows the cap to go up (but not above 195,000) or down (but not below 115,000), depending on actual market demand.
- Removes the existing 20,000 cap on the U.S. advanced degree exemption for H-1Bs.
- Authorizes employment for dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders.
- Exempts dependents of employment-based immigrant visa recipients, U.S. STEM advanced degree holders, persons with extraordinary ability, and outstanding professors and researchers from the employment-based green card cap.
- Eliminates annual per-country limits for employment-based visa petitioners and adjusts per-country caps for family-based immigrant visas.
For more information, please review full text or summary of S. 153, Immigration Innovation ("I-Squared") Act of 2015.
Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple are among companies that have been clamoring for better access to high-skilled foreign workers.
Analysts say the bills have a strong chance of passing both houses. "Congress seems much more amenable to high-skilled reform than they were before," said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. "Republicans have been on board with expanding high-skilled immigration for a very long time. Now that they control the Senate, they can control the discussion on that, and they're going to push for more liberalization of the system than they would have gotten in a mixed Congress."
U.S. employers are always looking for skilled workers. Please polish your resume and update your career profiles regularly.
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By Bill at January 15, 2015 23:53
Filed Under:
Summary of the Immigration Innovation Act of 2015 (S. 153) by Senators Hatch (R-UT), Klobuchar (D-MN), Rubio (R-FL), Coons (D-DE), Flake (R-AZ), and Blumenthal (D-CT). (full text)
- Employment-Based Nonimmigrant H-1B Visas
- Increase the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000
- Allow the cap to go up (but not above 195,000) within any fiscal year where early filings exceed cap and require the cap to go down in a following fiscal year (but not below 115,000) if usage at the end of any fiscal year is below that particular year’s cap
- Uncap the existing U.S. advanced degree exemption (currently limited to 20,000 per year)
- Authorize employment for dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders
- Increase worker mobility by establishing a grace period during which foreign workers can change jobs and not be out of status and restoring visa revalidation for E, H, L, O and P nonimmigrant visa categories
- Student Visas: Allow dual intent for foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities to provide the certainty they need to ensure their future in the United States
- Green Cards:
- Enable the recapture of green card numbers that were approved by Congress in previous years but were not used, and continue this policy going forward through the roll-over of unused green cards in future fiscal years to the following fiscal year
- Exempt certain categories of persons from the employment-based green card cap:
- Dependents of employment-based immigrant visa recipients
- U.S. STEM advance degree holders
- Persons with extraordinary ability
- Outstanding professors and researchers
- Eliminate annual per-country limits for employment based visa petitioners
- Adjust per-country caps for family-based immigrant visas
- U.S. STEM Education & Worker Retraining Initiative: Reform fees on H-1B visas and employment-based green cards; use money from these fees to fund a grant program to promote STEM education and worker retraining to be administered by the states
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We have just published all labor certifications filed by U.S. employers during fiscal year 2014 through our legacy database system.
From October 2013 to September 2014, U.S. employers filed 519,504 labor condition applications for H-1B visa jobs, a 17% increase from 2013. During the same time, Department of Labor made decisions on 70,998 labor certifications for employment green card: a 61% increase from 2013.
Please use following links to search potential job opportunities and pitch employers directly.
Our new visa job database is now updated daily with full copies of original petitions. However, we still maintain the legacy system which is updated once every quarter with case summary only. Some cases might not appear on both systems due to various reasons.
U.S. employers are always looking for skilled workers, even in holiday seasons. Please polish your resume and update your career profiles regularly.
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The H1B visa is a temporary worker visa in specialty occupations. To qualify for it, you must meet one of the following three education requirements:
- You hold a bachelor's or higher degree in the specialty occupation from an accredited college or university.
- You have 12 years of progressively responsible work experience in the specialty.
- You have a combination of education and related professional work experience in the specialty. Three years of specialized experience is generally considered equivalent to one year of college education.
For example, if you have a three year associate degree, you must have at least 3 year of relevant post-graduate experience to be qualified for H1B Visa. Click here to learn the Point System
If your degree was earned from a foreign country, then that degree must be determined to be the educational equivalent of a U.S. degree.
In addition, if the offered job is in the occupations that require licensure or professional credentials (e.g., doctor, dentist, CPA, attorney, registered nurse), you must already hold such qualification before the H1B visa petition can be filed or the licensure requirement has been waived.
To know more about H1B Visa or search all H1B Visa filed from 2001 to 2014, please visit our
H1B Visa section.
If you qualify for H1B Visa, please
search our Visa Sponsor Database and make sure you
update your career profile regularly!
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We have published all labor certifications filed by U.S. employers during the first six months of fiscal year 2014 through our legacy database system.
From October 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, U.S. employers filed 308,532 labor condition applications for H-1B visa jobs: 6,392 were denied, 9,704 were withdrawn. During the same time, Department of Labor made decisions on 30,565 labor certifications for employment green card: 2,479 were denied, 1,885 were withdrawn.
Please use following links to search potential job opportunities and pitch employers directly.
Our new visa job database is now updated daily with full copies of original petitions. However, we still maintain the legacy system which is updated once every quarter with case summary only. Some cases might not appear on both systems due to various reasons.
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In June 2013, the US Senate voted 68-32 to pass a historic immigration reform bill which will not only legalize 11 million undocumented, but also dramastically incease the number of H-1B visas and green cards for skilled foreign workers.
However, the reform bill has been stuck in the House of Representatives since then. If no action is taken in coming months, we will still have only 85,000 cap-subject H-1B visa for next year.
1.The President: I'll Act on my Own Agenda!
President Obama vowed to use his executive authority to usher in a "year of action" even if Congress remains gridlocked. At a recent Cabinet meeting, he said he would talk to agency heads about using "all the tools available to us, not just legislation, in order to advance" his policy priorities.
In the summer of 2012, this president issued Dream Act executive order which stops the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States before they turned 16 years old and grants them work-authorization papers.
2. The House Democrat: Co-Sponsors for Democratic Immigration Reform Bill reached 195.
On October 2, 2013, Democrats in the House proposed an immigration reform bill(H.R.15), which is very similar to S.744, the bipartisan bill passed by the Senate. The co-sponsor of this bill has reached 195 last week, including some Republican representatives. Only 218 votes are needed to pass this bill, but the House majority leaders just refuse to give it a chance to vote.
3. The House Republican: Scheduled to release their "Principles" of immigration reform.
According to a recent NFAP report, following are Republican principals related work visa:
- Increase the employment-based green card quota beyond the current 140,000 a year limit, counting only principals toward the quota, eliminate the per country limit for employment-based immigrants and exempt from the annual limit foreign nationals with a master's degree or higher from a U.S. university in a STEM field.
- Increase the annual H-1B visa cap and expand current exemptions from the cap for highly skilled foreign nationals.
- Establish a visa category for immigrant entrepreneurs.
- Create a temporary visa category for agriculture that is far easier to use than the current H-2A category.
- Establish a temporary work visa category that will allow full-year (as opposed to seasonal) work in the jobs typically held by unauthorized immigrants in fields like construction and hospitality.
Stay turned, we will report new developments on our FaceBook page and Immigration blog.
U.S. employers are expected to file more than 150,000 H-1B visa petitions in the first week of April. It is time for you to update your career profile and pitch potential employers now!
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Do you qualify for an H1B Visa? If yes, congratulations! If not, there are still some other workvisa options. Please check the full list of U.S. work visa.
The H1B visa is a temporary worker visa in specialty occupations. To qualify for it, you must meet one of the following three education requirements:
- You hold a bachelor's or higher degree in the specialty occupation from an accredited college or university.
- You have 12 years of progressively responsible work experience in the specialty.
- You have a combination of education and related professional work experience in the specialty. Three years of specialized experience is generally considered equivalent to one year of college education.
For example, if you have a three year associate degree, you must have at least 3 year of relevant post-graduate experience to be qualified for H1B Visa. Click here to learn the Point System
If your degree was earned from a foreign country, then that degree must be determined to be the educational equivalent of a U.S. degree.
In addition, if the offered job is in the occupations that require licensure or professional credentials (e.g., doctor, dentist, CPA, attorney, registered nurse), you must already hold such qualification before the H1B visa petition can be filed or the licensure requirement has been waived.
To know more about H1B Visa or search all H1B Visa filed from 2001 to 2013, please visit our H1B Visa section.
If you qualify for H1B Visa, please search our Visa Sponsor Database and make sure youupdate your career profile regularly!
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Myvisajobs.com's data center is now partially in sync with iCERT Visa Portal, the system run by Department of Labor to approve foreign labor certifications. Every day, our system adds or updates thousands of certifications filed by U.S. employers.
When you search H1B visa jobs on myvisajobs.com, do not forget to pick one of the following case statuses to get desired results:
The case status might change at any time during working hours. Due to the large number of cases in our system, we could not update all of them in real time. So we add a link on certification page to help you get real time status update.
On the top of every labor certification page, just click on "Get Real Time Case Status Update" link, our system will "shake hand with" the ICERT system and return with current case status.
Try it now, and let us know how you think!
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Why U.S. employers file over 300,000 Labor Condition Application(LCA) every year while only about 100,000 H1B visas are issued? What's the difference between LCA and H1B Visa?
Before U.S. employer can file H1B visa petition with USCIS, it must fill Labor Condition Application(LCA) with the Department of Labor(DOL) demonstrating that it is paying the required wage for this position in the geographic region where the job is located.
When an employee renews or transfers his H1B visa or changes work location under some circumstances, he also needs to have a new LCA. DOL typically certifies more than 3 times the number of LCA than the number of H1B visas issued by USCIS. click here to know more about LCA and work visa?
Our LCA database includes LCA submitted for not only new employment, but also continuation or change in previously approved employment, new concurrent employment, change in employer and amended petition. Usually, only new employment needs H1B Visa quota.
Following work visa program requires Department of Labor to issue permanent or temporary labor certifications: click here to learn more
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