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Here are a few tidbits about the H-1B eligibility process from one (me) who actually has done thousands of these for a living. First, the H-1B is not just for IT people; it is for any occupation that requires at least a U.S. bachelor's degree (or foreign equivalent, as evaluated by independent and registered evaluation agencies) or more - these are professional positions and include teachers, accountants, etc.
There is also a subset of H-1Bs, the H-1B3, for fashion models (not the supermodels, but regular catalog or runway or parts models). The requirements for that one are slightly different (obviously, since no degree is required). Yet, fashion model H-1B3s are still part of the yearly cap of new H-1B visas doled out each fiscal year.
I will just concentrate on the college-degree H-1B1. There are many rules and I'm only touching on the more important ones.
First, the prospective employer must:
-attest it will pay at least THE SAME OR MORE THAN the prevailing wage for that position offered at the same level of experience/education in the specific geographic area as per an official wage survey (most immigration people use the U.S. government's own wage survey which is online and accessible by anyone) - of course an employer can lie, but in my 11 years of experience everyone who was a prospective H-1B employee was always paid well above the prevailing wage;
-attest the benefits are the same as the ones given to all other employees;
-post said attestation (known as the Labor Condition Application -LCA- not to be confused with labor certification, which was the subject of an infamous YouTube video) in a public area (such as a bulletin board) for 10 consecutive business days. Anyone can protest if needed.
-there are additional requirements for H-1B dependent employers (those who have more than a certain percentage of H-1B workers and those who are subject to collective bargaining and union contracts).
-the employer must be prepared to pay at least $3000 in filing fees to USCIS alone, not to mention lawyer fees. For each prospective H-1B applicant (because, believe it or not, not everyone gets approved for one), an employer is investing about $5000-10000.
-the employer must file all the paperwork, which includes forms and a supporting letter (by the employer) explaining what the job entails and how that job can only be performed by someone with at least a bachelor's degree or above and how the applicant meets those requirements.
The prospective H-1B employee must prove the following:
-that s/he possesses a U.S. bachelor's or higher in the specialty occupation in which the visa is sought. In other words, a BA in English can't be considered for an accounting position, unless s/he possesses years of experience (3 years of provable and verifiable experience, usually in the form of a letter from a former employer describing the duties, equal 1 year of undergraduate education as per USCIS) in that field.
-those with foreign degrees need to have their degrees evaluated by a U.S. agency that is registered with USCIS and deemed qualified and unbiased. This is done by the employer (so that people can't fake their evaluations). There are a few very good and unquestionably reliable agencies and I'm sure that there are some scummy ones. The ones I've dealt with have superb reputations with people who have worked in international education.
-a special note about Indian three-year degrees: some colleges in India award three-year undergraduate degrees to students. More often than not, reputable agencies cannot render an equivalency to a U.S. four-year degree. It's been my experience (11 years and counting) that 9 out of 10 with three-year degrees are denied equivalency to a four-year degree. Of course, if they have experience (3 years = 1 year of undergrad), that experience can be evaluated jointly to equal a U.S. bachelor's equivalent.
IF the visa is approved (and that's an if, because not all visas are approved and some candidates are marginally qualified), the candidate has to take his approval notice to a U.S. Consulate abroad and be interviewed personally in order to gain admittance.
Obtaining a visa to the U.S. for employment is a two-step process that involves two separate government agencies. Firstly, one deals with the eligibility for the visa itself by going through USCIS (Dept. of Homeland Security).
Then, if the visa is approved by USCIS, the Department of State must actually grant permission to enter with that visa and can limit the amount of time one is allowed to work in the U.S., even if the visa has an initial duration of 3 years (such as the H-1B) - this happens frequently, especially to Brazilians in all visa categories. The Dept. of State, of course, staffs all consulates and its officers perform the visa interviews.
Certain consulates require additional steps. For instance, Chennai (f/k/a Madras) and Mumbai (f/k/a Bombay) used to require actual photographs of the company where one was going to work (unless that company was well known), in addition to others.
Of the companies in that list, I have worked extensively with numbers 4, 10, 15 and 18. In all cases, all applicants who ended up being approved for visas were highly qualified and paid well above the prevailing wage. Some, not all, have now become lawful permanent residents (which requires a whole another set of long and expensive steps), and some of the earlier ones are U.S. citizens (dual or otherwise).
All nationalities were represented and included professionals all over the world, not just India.
I know I will get lambasted with people's personal experiences of how an H-1B worker stole a job, etc. etc. Let me be clear - ANYTHING can be falsified or can be made to meet the requirements of the law. However, in my 11 years of work in this arena I've never had a prospective H-1B who actually got the visa to be unqualified and/or to be paid less than what was stated.
Now, the L-1B visas ('specialized knowledge' intracompany transfer visas) are a totally different ballgame and much more rife with abuses simply because the eligibiliy requirements, apart from corporate ownership of a foreign entity and the prospective transferee having been employed there for a certain amount of time, are vague at best (the definition of "specialized knowledge" can be made to fit just about anything) and there are no educational requirements.
Anyway, everytime I see these H-1B threads I cringe because there is a lot of ignorance about the process of actually applying for and obtaining the H-1B visa, vis-a-vis (no pun) the L-1B visa which, in my professional and personal experience, is much more abused.
Flame away.
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