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By CECILIA K. GULLAS
Special to the Filipino Reporter
Demand for H-1B visas has accelerated in
July with 20,000 applications being filed from July 1
to 31, 2005, mostly by computer and science professionals
and business graduates in accounting and management from
India, China and the Philippines, according to latest
official reports from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS).
Of the total number of cases filed, 21,252
cases had been approved, while 27,788 are pending subject
to requests for additional information from USCIS, thus
reducing the total number of available H-1B visas to 49,040.
Hence, it is predicted that the cap for
the 65,000 quota for Fiscal Year 2006 will once again
be reached by Oct. 1, as it happened last year.
This means that there will only be 10,000
H-1Bs available for foreign nationals like Filipinos who
wish to change their visas from a B-1/B-2 tourist and
business visas to temporary working visas.
“We are urging everyone who is eligible
for an H-1B visa and who needs it to remain in legal status
in the U.S. to file immediately before the visa caps,
sometimes overnight,” said Atty. Jude Palces of
the Law Offices of Gerry Albano in Lower Manhattan.
For foreign nationals with master’s
degrees obtained from U.S. colleges and universities,
they will be able to apply even if the H-1B visa caps
on Oct. 1, as 20,000 extra visas have been set aside from
them by Congress last year.
However, since getting a master’s
degree from such universities like Princeton and Harvard
is an expensive and educationally challenging process,
not too many foreign nationals availed of the existing
visas.
As of July 28, the USCIS received only
10,150 applications from higher degree holders for Fiscal
Year 2005, and 7,884 petitions for Fiscal Year 2006.
When the quota for the 65,000 visas is
exhausted, only government institutions like the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, institutions of
higher education like the City University of New York,
and nonprofit institutions affiliated to institutions
of higher education like the Pulitzer Prize Foundation
which is affiliated with Columbia University School of
Journalism, are exempt from the cap and eligible to apply
for workers under the H-1B visas.
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