H1B petitions: Over 20,000 vacancies still left

Nearly three months after the US immigration agency started accepting petitions for the H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign professionals, it is still looking for more than 20,000 applications to fill the Congressionally-mandated cap of 65,000.

Amid the economic downturn and protectionist provisions in the US stimulus package, the demand for the visas, which is mostly availed by Indian professionals, has slowed down. The latest figures released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveal that approximately 44,800 H-1B petitions have been received by it so far.

In the last few years, there was huge demand of H-1B visas, with the USCIS receiving several times the quota of 65,000 in the first few days itself. It had to resort to computerised lottery to determine the successful applicants.

But with current economic downturn and certain provisions in the economic stimulus package, the H-1B petitions to the USCIS centres are now coming in ones and twos.

This is in contrast to the last few years, when the US Postal Services had been making special arrangements for delivery of bundles of H-1B petitions. The economic stimulus package prevents hiring of foreign workers by companies receiving federal aid money.

However, officials at the USCIS said it is work back to normal. "This is what it used to be couple of years ago, before it turned out to be a great rush in the last few years," a USCIS official said.

The USCIS also said it would continue to receive applications for the advanced degree category, in which the cap is 20,000. The USCIS had received about 20,000 H-1B petitions in the first few days itself, but it is still continuing to accept such applications, it said.

"USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn," it said.