Foreign workers in the US on a H1B work visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, may work for more than one company, the country’s immigration agency has said.
The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
“In general, H1B workers may work for more than one employer but must have approved I-129 for each,” the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency which receives and determines the successful applications for H1B visas, tweeted on Tuesday.
“New employer must submit an I-129 petition before you may begin working,” the USCIS said.
Form I-129 is a form submitted for a non-immigrant worker to the USCIS used by employers or prospective employers to obtain (or amend the details of) a worker on a non-immigrant visa status.
While this is not a new rule, but very few people know about it.
The H1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress.
In a blog post, Immigration Attorney Tsion Chudnovsky said immigration lawyers are seeing a big change in how visas are being processed in 2017 and many expect denial rates to increase to 40 per cent in this year’s H1B cap. The USCIS has started challenging H1Bs which would have no problem being approved in the past, she said.