Plenty of Time to Sponsor H-1Bs

Many of our clients are colleges, universities and affiliated nonprofits that are exempt from the annual cap on H-1B approvals, and we file H-1B cases year round every year for those clients.  But for other types of clients, April 1 is an important date each year because it's the first day U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) accepts H-1B petitions for the coming federal fiscal year starting October 1.  H-1B status is for specialty occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent specific vocational preparation (including computer professionals, teachers, healthcare workers - a wide range of occupations). Again this year, the U.S.economy isn't generating excess demand for H-1B workers, so the H-1B cap is not a major factor.  As of April 15, 2011, CIS received 7,100 H-1B petitions toward the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B approvals, plus 5,100 H-1B petitions for professions requiring an advanced degree (a masters degree or equivalent, including a bachelor's degree plus at least 5 years of experience) toward the advanced degree annual cap of 20,000.  In other words, there's plenty of time for employers to sponsor workers for H-1B status within the annual cap.  If you've avoided H-1B sponsorship because you've heard about the problems caused by the H-1B cap, it's a good time to look into the H-1B option again.  H-1B status is a great solution for employers who facechallenges recruiting and retaining professionals in a range of fields.