Re: H1-visa
Overview H-1B
The H-1B category is an expedient and lawful method to bring foreign-born professionals temporarily to the United States, and therefore one of the most widely sought after visa classifications for employment in the United States.
An individual may work in H-1B status for a maximum of six years. However, a petition will not be granted for more than three years. An extension of stay is requested if an individual is in H-1B status already and he or she is eligible for a longer period of employment. Certain aliens working on Defense Department projects may remain in H1B status for 10 years.
USCIS will generally not grant a petition for self-employed people. A petition may be filed by a job contractor, namely a person or entity that pays its employees for services performed at the work sites of other employers.
Please note that it is possible to get your H-1B visa approved for more than 6 years in some cases depending upon your employment based green card processing status. Please refer to the appropriate section here to find out more how you can extend your H-1B visa for more than 6 years, either 1 year at a time or 3 years at a time.
Maximum 65,000 H1B non-immigrant visas are issued per year. However, 6800 out of these are reserved for Chile and Singapore under certain Free Trade Agreements between these countries and the United States. Therefore only 58,200 new H1B numbers are available each fiscal year. (In fiscal year 2005, out of 6800, only 100 or so were used. Therefore rest of them were already used and counted towards the cap.)
Omnibus bill was signed by president on Dec 8, 2004 which exempts up to 20,000 foreign nationals with Masters' degrees or higher from U.S. institutions of higher education from the H1B cap. It will be effective 90 days after the date it is signed into law, which is Mar 8, 2005.
Following beneficiaries of approved H1B petitions are exempt from the H1B annual cap:
• beneficiaries who are in J-1 non-immigrant status in order to receive graduate medical education or training, and who have obtained a waiver of the 2-year home residency requirement, or
• beneficiaries who are employed at, or who have received an offer of employment at, an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated non-profit entity; or
• beneficiaries who are employed by, or who have received an offer of employment from, a non-profit research organization; or
• beneficiaries who are employed by, or who have received an offer of employment from, a governmental research organization; or
• beneficiaries who are currently maintaining, or who have held within the last 6 years, H-1B status, and are ineligible for another full six year stay as an H-1B; or
• beneficiaries who have been counted once toward the numerical limit, and are the beneficiary of multiple petitions.
Please note that an H-1B worker not previously counted toward the annual cap who leaves the employment of an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated non-profit entity to work as an H-1B at an employer other than those of type listed above will be counted toward the annual cap at that time.
When approval of an H-1B petition is revoked on the basis of fraud or the willful misrepresentation of a material fact, one number shall be restored to the H-1B cap in the fiscal year in which the petition is revoked, regardless of the fiscal year in which the application was actually approved.
The USCIS has conducted sweeps of the H-1B data to identify multiple beneficiaries to ensure that they are counted toward the cap only once in past fiscal years. USCIS will continue with that process insuring that they conduct the sweep on using H-1B data for the past six years.
The advantage of an H1 visa is that you can work legally in the US in non-immigrant status, get the visa quickly after the petition is approved, you may travel in and out of the US or remain in the US until the visa expires and H4 visa is available for accompanying family member (spouse and minor children under 21).
In general, most nonimmigrant visa classifications require that a person maintain a foreign residence abroad and show that he or she is coming to the U.S. temporarily. However, the law allows a person on a H-visa to have "dual intent," which is arguably the most beneficial aspect of obtaining this visa. Under the dual intent doctrine, a person may come to the U.S. temporarily and lawfully seek permanent residence (for himself/herself and immediate family members, spouse and children under 21) in the United States at the same time, without affecting H1/H4 status. Therefore, the filing of a labor certification or an employment based preference petition will not cause denial of an H-1B petition filed with the USCIS or an application for an H-1B visa at a U.S. Consulate abroad. While green card application is pending, H1/H4 visa holders can travel in and out of US using non-expired H1/H4 visa without need for Advance Parole or EAD. H-1B foreign specialty workers are not required to maintain foreign residence and may seek permanent residence in the U.S.
If you plan to work for multiple employer(either full time or part time), each employer must file separate H1B petition.
The employer is responsible for return transportation costs for an employee terminated prior to the end of the approved period of employment.
You can not file H1 for yourself.
H1 visa holder can buy house or any other real estate property in USA. H1 visa holder can also work invest money in stocks, mutual funds, bonds etc. H1 visa holder can not work as self-employed or freelancer and do contract type of work in free time.
If the beneficiary of an H-1B visa is in the U.S. in valid status (e.g., F-1 visa), he or she may change status. If the beneficiary is not in the U.S., he or she must go to the U.S. Consulate to apply for an H-1B visa upon USCIS's approval of the employer's petition.
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also
en._.wikipedia._.org/wiki/H1B_visa