H1b Visas 2018

The US cap on H1b Visas remains at 85,000 per year with 20,000 of these visas reserved for MS degree holders. There were 190,098 Applications received in 2018.

An H-1B Visa (or H-1B transfer) will cost employers around $5000 (including government fees). Immigration lawyer fees should costs $2000 to $3000, while filing fees are around $3000. An employer must have enough money in the bank necessary to pay the H1B employee's salary for a reasonable period of time.

In 2017 F1 Student Visas were issued to 393,573 foreign students to study at US universities. Many of these foreign students are engineering students.

2018 – H-1B visa applications are down again, by Sara Ashley O'Brien, 4/12/18, CNN Money.

Applications for the visa, which is frequently used in the tech industry by highly-skilled foreign workers, opened on April 2 for a five day period. This year, 190,098 applications were received, down from 199,000 applications in 2017. Last year marked the first time the number fell below 200,000 applications since 2014.

Companies will have to provide specific work assignments, including dates and locations, to verify the "employer-employee" relationship between the company applying for an H-1B and its visa recipient.

The USCIS said in that same memo that it may limit the length of the visa to shorter than three years based the information an employer provides. For example, if an employer can't prove the H-1B holder is "more likely than not" needed for the full three years, the government might issue the visa for fewer than three years.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/12/technology/h-1b-visa-applications-2018/index.html

2017 - H-1B visa applications decline for first time in 5 years

by Sara Ashley O'Brien, 4/17/17, CNN Money.

On Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the number of H-1B applications fell below 200,000 this year for the first time since 2014.

Just 85,000 H-1B visas (20,000 of which are reserved for master's degree holders) are granted annually, but the past few years have seen swelling demand.

Applications for the visa opened on April 3, and it was the fifth consecutive year that the cap was met within five days.

During that period, 199,000 applications were received.

In 2016, USCIS received 236,000 applications -- and the number had been climbing since at least 2013.

The H-1B is the most common visa for high-skilled foreign workers, but it's also become the subject of much scrutiny. While H-1B visas are used to fill the U.S. skills gap, critics, including the Trump administration, have voiced concerns about abuse of the program.

https://money.cnn.com/2017/04/17/technology/h-1b-visa-applications/index.html

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader