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 Nandini
P Nair informs that 40,000 H1-B visa applications have been filed
for 2005
Dear readers,
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (US-CIS)
has released information regarding the H1-B cap. They stated that
as of August 4, 2004, 40,000 cases had been filed against the fiscal
year (FY) 2005 cap.
The total H1-B cap for FY2005 is 65,000. Some
of those numbers are reserved for nationals of Chile and Singapore,
due to certain Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) signed by each of these
countries with the United States. Thus, there actually are only
58,200 H1-B cap numbers available for a fiscal year.
What this means is that the cap will be reached
fairly soon, perhaps not even lasting until the 2005 fiscal year,
which begins on October 1, 2004. Those who have H1-B cap-subject
cases will need to file their petitions as soon as possible for
a chance at the remaining H1-B numbers.
The issuance of cap numbers is based upon the
date of the case filing, not case approval. At this point, the USCIS
has stated that, of the 40,000 cases filed, 21,000 have been approved.
The remainder are pending, but have been filed in time to obtain
H1-B cap numbers.
In addition, USCIS has processed 56,100 approvals
toward last year’s H1-B cap (fiscal year 2004), so far. Other
remaining cases for 2004 include those caught in IBIS (Interagency
Border Inspection System) checks, for which the remaining 2,100
numbers (65,000 minus the Chile/Singapore numbers) are expected
to be applied. These are the numbers for which filings were cut-off
in February 2004.
I-130 filings
Here are some clarifications about I-130 filings
at the US consulate in Delhi.
An immigration attorney posed the following questions
to the consulate in New Delhi following the announcement of the
requirement for a US citizen’s 60 days’ presence in India
prior to filing for immediate relatives:
1) Are 60 days calculated from the time they
enter India to the date of filing?
2) If a US citizen goes to India to get married,
is the 60 days calculated from the day he marries to the date of
the filing or the date he enters India?
3) Does the US citizen have to remain in India
after filing the I-130? If yes, until when?
Here are the responses to these questions from
Joseph P Galoski, acting officer-in-charge, DHS-Immi-gration, New
Delhi:
“60 days starts upon arrival into India,
not from date of marriage. The 60 days also must be immediately
preceding the filing of the petition, with no departures from the
country within that 60 day period.
It is not necessary for the petitioner to remain
in India subsequent to the filing of the I-130 at this office, however,
filing at this office must
be done in person, by both spouses.”
How can we bring the wife of a person who is on
a B1 visa to the US. The person is working in our company and we
need to apply for his wife’s visa.
—Z Ahmad
If the spouse is on B1 visa to the US, the wife
can only come in on her own B2 visa. If the B1 changes to H1-B,
after approval, the wife can come in on H-4 status.
Nandini P Nair is a US Immigration Attorney
based in New York, US. E-mail: dininair@aol.com
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