Special Occupation
The H1B1 is a dual intent visa for workers who are considered to be
in specialty occupations. To be eligible the foreign national applicant
must have an employer willing to attest to paying the employee
a prevailing wage over a set period of time.
The Process
- Foreign national must have a Bachelors degree, related to a specialized occupation.
- The employer must offer the foreign national a specialized occupation, this can be difficult to explain and requires an experienced attorney to file the applications.
- The H1B1 are numerically capped for private industry employers.
- Opening dates for applications to the USCIS is April 1st of each year for a start date of October 1st of the same year.
- USCIS uses a lottery system to select a total of 85,000 H1B1 applications for processing.
- In the past several years there have been more than 200,000 applications submitted.
- If the foreign national works at a university of another qualifying employer which is not subject to the cap the H1B1 may be submitted at any time during the year.