Date Announced for New H1-B Applications

Amid the growing fears over Trump effect and Travel ban order in United States of America, the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) issued a statement regarding the applications for H-1B work visas. Although this is a welcome move by America, it is quite certain that there would a big dip in number of application compared to previous years.

As per the latest announcement, 'Starting April 3rd 2017, the department will start inviting H1-B work visa applications for fiscal year 2018' and there was no information disclosed about the last date to file these applications. Usually, over the years, USCIS has been accepting applications for first five days.

Also, for the fiscal 2018 season, United States will follow the mandated cap of 65,000 visas under general category and 20,000 are set aside for students who are either pursuing or finished their masters from any US educational institution. However, they have made an exemption to those people who come under H1-B visa for research and scientific study.

Based on the type of H1-B petition you are submitting, the fee for Form I-129 varies. For petitioners who are filing on behalf of no immigrant worker, the filing fee has been increased to $460 and adversely, those who are filing for H1-B will not be given any time to correct dishonored payment.

On other hand, International media also reports that there's a huge plunge in US-based college applications and it is more likely to continue if Trump forge ahead with his kind of policies against immigrants.