Indian companies looking to send techies on US projects better hurry up as the H-1B visas are getting over fast. The US received 5,500 new visa applications in less than two weeks, and now only 8,700 visas remain in this year's quota.

There has been a visible spurt in visa demand in the last few days — on November 2 over 14,000 visas were available. During August-September, an average of 1,800 visas are applied for every week.

“Over the last few weeks, there has been a 200-300 per cent increase in the number of H-1B visas that we have filed (for clients)…because the visas are going to run out soon,” said Ms Poorvi Chothani, managing partner at LawQuest, which has a global immigration practice.

Annual quota

In all, the US has received 56,300 applications against an annual global quota of 65,000 visas, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Once the entire quota is exhausted, companies will be able to apply for new visas only in April next.

“The US financial year, which runs from October to September, has begun. So now the visas can be utilised immediately,” Nasscom Vice-President, Mr Ameet Nivsarkar, said.

Each year, the US opens up its visa counters for receiving H-1B applications in April, but the approved applicants can start work only from October when the employment season begins.

H-1B is one of the most popular visas categories for Indian IT professionals, although they are also used by architects, accountants, doctors and college professors. Prior to 2008, the entire visa pool would get over in days.

The pace of filing was severely hit by the US slowdown.

In 2009, the pool was exhausted eight months after the start of the filing period, while last year it took ten months.

>moumita@thehindu.co.in

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