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On 1 April 2011, the United States began accepting Fiscal Year 2012 (FY 2012) H-1B petitions from US employers wishing to hire overseas workers in specialty occupations. The overseas workers are mainly in professional level jobs that require you to at least have a bachelors degree. The earliest start is 1 October 2011. While capped at 65,000 petitions per year, currently only 5,900 have been lodged.
An additional 20,000 visas are available for workers with a Masters degree or higher qualification. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received 4,500 petitions so far towards this limit.
US firms use the H-1B program to hire foreign workers in certain specialty occupations that require "theoretical and practical expertise". You can gain entry to the US on an H-1B visa if you have at least a bachelors degree and are a computer programmer, engineer, scientist or are in any other professional level specialty occupation. It is possible in some cases as an alternative to a bachelors degree to show equivalency to a degree; Generally twelve years of specialty level work experience. Many people on H-1B visas in the US are Indians in the IT industry.
In the past, all 65,000 H-1B visas were used up in as little as one day. However, the US economy has not fully recovered from the economic downturn of 2008. The demand for foreign labour remains much lower than in 2007.
