Recruiting top talent in this day and age can often mean looking to immigrants with talents in an employer's field. The immigration process can be a difficult one for an employer to navigate, but staying on top of deadlines can keep you ahead of the game. The H-1B is a type of visa that allows U.S. employers to provisionally employ foreign workers.
On April 1, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting fiscal year 2014 H-1B cap-subject petitions for employment starting on Oct. 1, 2013.
What is the H-1B cap?
There is an annual cap on the number of new H-1B petitions available each year. The law allows for 65,000 new H-1B visas to be issued each year, and an additional 20,000 visas are available to foreign workers with an advanced degree from a U.S. academic institution.
Because there is a cap on the number of available visas each year, employers interested in hiring foreign workers in an H-1B status should file as soon as possible.
Certain employers are exempt from the H-1B cap and can apply for an H-1B visa year-round. These include institutions of higher education such as universities, nonprofit entities related to an institution of higher education, and nonprofit or government-affiliated research organizations.
In addition, foreign workers who have already been counted against the H-1B cap are not subject to the H-1B cap.
What type of positions and workers qualify?
U.S. businesses use the H-1B visa to employ foreign workers in "professional" or "specialty occupation" positions.
A position is considered "professional" or a "specialty occupation" if it requires at least a bachelor's degree as a minimum qualification for the position.
In other words, if in the general labor market a candidate would usually need a bachelor's degree to be hired for a given position, that position may be filled by an H-1B worker.
Similarly, the H-1B worker must possess a degree in a field related to the position being filled. If the H-1B worker does not have a formal educational degree, then 12 years of progressive experience in the field may be used instead to obtain the equivalent of a bachelor's degree.
How to prepare
While last year's H-1B cap was not reached until June 11, the cap could be reached sooner this year. Therefore, employers should immediately evaluate their hiring needs for this year and identify any current employees or potential hires that will need H-1B sponsorship.
Possible candidates for an H-1B visa include potential new hires or current employees working on another type of work visa, such as student (F-1/OPT), exchange visitor (J-1), intra-company transferee (L-1), or NAFTA professional (TN).
Once employers have identified candidates for H-1B status, they should contact an immigration attorney to evaluate whether the offered position and the candidate's credentials will support an H-1B petition and start filing as soon as possible.
Used with permission from Fisher & Phillips LLP. Jessica Cook is an immigration attorney at the firm's Atlanta office. She can be reached at
