PROFESSIONALS AND SPECIALISTS - H Visa
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
H1B Visa allows employers in the U.S. to hire foreign specialists. Employer is the actual petitioner while the employee is known as the beneficiary. The H1B employee may only work in the U.S. for the petitioning employer. As soon as the position is terminated, either by the employer or the employee, the H1B status is also terminated. Initially, the job offer must not exceed 3 years, although an extension may be granted for an additional 3 years, a total of 6. After an entire 6 year term, the H1B employee must leave the U.S. for a year before applying for any other visa. A company desirous of employing an H1B specialist beyond the allotted 6 year term should consider petitioning for the employee’s permanent employment which is synonymous with permanent residency. By the same token, a temporary non-immigrant H1B employee, if desirous of staying in the U.S. past the 6 year term under some other visa, should apply sufficiently ahead of the 6 year deadline. The position may be full time or part time and must require an educational level of at least a baccalaureate degree in a related field or an equivalent education or experience. As a rule of thumb, to qualify as having experience equivalent to a baccalaureate degree, employee needs to have three years experience in a particular field for every year of education towards a baccalaureate degree. It is assumed that a baccalaureate degree takes four years of education, (therefore at least twelve years of experience are needed to constitute an equivalency of a U.S. baccalaureate degree). However, any type higher-level education may often be considered to fulfill at least a partial educational requirement for an H1B. EXAMPLE: An individual from India with a U.S. equivalent of a B.S. degree in civil engineering also has six years of experience working as a computer programmer/analyst. He has been offered a position as a programmer/analyst by a firm in San Jose, CA. Even though he does not have the required B.S. in computer science, nor the twelve years of experience that would serve as an equivalent of required education, he may nevertheless be eligible for an H1B. Because courses towards a particular degree constitute only about half of the actual courses completed, with the remainder of the studies being spent on general subjects, the H1B applicant in this example may get two years of his education accredited towards a baccalaureate degree, with the remaining two years being compensated by five years of experience. Petitioning employer may be any business entity doing business in the U.S. Employer need not guarantee employment to the H1B employee for any period of time. However, employer is required to notify the INS of any termination of such employment. There is no limit on how many visas a single employer may be granted. Employer is required to pay H1B employee a "prevailing wage" as determined by the department of labor of any given state where employee would work. The prevailing wage is based on economic considerations pertaining to the specific geographical area. INFORMATION GATHERING AND DOCUMENT PREPARATION Our job is to compile information and documents received from the employer and the employee into the proper format for an H1B petition with all the required supplemental documents. We recommend that your company designate a "go to" person for us, such as your executive officer, human resources professional, office manager, or any other competent person who can gather the information we may request. We will also have extensive discussions with your future employee about his qualifications, job experience, educational credentials, travel documents, visa processing and derivative applications for his family. We will have the employee’s educational credentials evaluated by licensed evaluators so that a U.S.-equivalent level of education can be established. LABOR CONDITION APPLICATION ("LCA") LCA proposes to the U.S. Department of Labor a prevailing wage to be paid the H1B employee. A prevailing wage should be based on statistics obtained from a state level department of labor, or "Department of Employment Security". Attorney’s understanding of exact job duties and proper specialty classification for purposes of establishing prevailing wage is a must. In some cases, it is possible to file a Blanket Petition, or one petition for several employees, rather than file one petition for each individual employee. Spouses and Children of the H1B recipient have what is called a derivative status and receive an H4 Visa which allows them to travel to the U.S. and stay here for as long as does the H1B recipient. The H4 is precluded from engaging in employment. However, the H4 may attend school without a student visa (F-1). The H1B employee and his family may obtain permanent residency through the process known as Labor Certification. H1B’s interested in permanent residency are better off initiating this process early in their visa duration, see Labor Certification.