If an American postdoctoral fellow wants to apply for an H1B work visa, the most important thing for this visa is to first find an American employer. The American employer says that it will hire you for a long time and will not change its mind within a certain period of time. The U.S. employer cooperates and submits the materials, and the process can finally be followed.

The process for U.S. postdocs to apply for an H1B work visa:

Step 1:

Find a U.S. employer willing to hire you and sign an employment contract.

Step 2:

The employer applies for a petition from the Ministry of Labor. Special occupations need to apply for an LCA.

Step 3:

The employer submits Form I-129 to USCIS and attaches the petition or LCA approved by the Department of Labor.

Step 4:

After Form I-129 is approved:

Employees outside the United States: apply for H-1B visa through the U.S. consulate overseas, otherwise In addition, if you obtain a visa, you must apply for an entry permit from U.S. Customs and Border Protection when entering the country.

Employees in the United States: Submit an application to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, including the signed original labor status application approval letter, all application forms signed by the employer, and an application letter signed by the employer (Petition

Letter), as well as the supporting information required by the employer and employee mentioned above.

Step 5:

Document delivery and lottery procedures.

The Immigration Bureau will only accept applications received on or after April 1, so special attention should be paid to the delivery time. The lottery usually starts in mid-April. If you win the lottery, your employer and lawyer will receive an I-797 case receipt from USCIS at the end of April or early May. The receipt will have a case number on it and you can check the progress of the case. If unfortunately you are not selected, the Immigration Bureau will return the application packages one after another.

Step 6:

The Immigration Bureau will generally issue an approval within three to six months after receiving the application. If you apply for premium processing (Premium Processing)

Service) The Immigration Bureau will make a decision within 15 days after issuing the I-797 receipt; if the Immigration Bureau requires supplementary materials (Request for

Evidence), the expedited case will be received within 15 days. A decision will be made within 15 days after supplementary materials are provided.

Remarks:

For information applying outside the United States, please see the U.S. Work Visa Materials List page.

H-1B work visas issued to foreigners

Usually require employer sponsorship and application to the Immigration Bureau; since 2013, the number of H-1B applications every year has far exceeded There is an upper limit, so the Immigration Bureau will draw lots to decide whose applications will be accepted, and the remaining applications will be returned; in the past three years, the winning rate for undergraduate graduates has been less than 30%.

Tightening H-1B visas

On April 18, 2018, Trump signed an agreement in Wisconsin regarding "Buy American, Hire American" )" executive order.

In terms of "buying American goods," the new executive order requires federal agencies to conduct a "top-to-bottom" assessment. The federal government must strictly implement laws to buy American products, and federal funding projects must use products produced in the United States. steel.

The government needs to re-examine the procurement portion of existing trade agreements to determine whether U.S. companies have equal opportunities with other foreign companies when selling products to trading partners. A senior official said "Buy American" is the Trump administration's highest priority when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars.

In terms of "employing Americans," Trump's executive order requires federal agencies to propose gradual rectification measures for the H-1B visa program. He criticized the H-1B policy for lowering the overall wage in the United States. level.

This executive order also requires strengthening law enforcement and requiring H-1B applicants and employers to prove that "applicants meet the requirements of highly skilled employees", with the purpose of cutting off shortcuts for American companies to hire cheap foreign employees. , stop the abuse of the current system.

Since President Trump took office, it has become more and more common for the Immigration Bureau to require work visa applicants to provide supplementary documents; by the fourth quarter of last year, 68.9% of applications were required to provide supplementary documents; those whose visas were rejected As much as 22.4%, 6.5 percentage points more than the third quarter, an increase of 41%.

The report of the National Foundation for National Policy pointed out that compared with the Obama administration, the rejection rate of all types of work visas has increased, and applicants from some countries (such as India) are required to provide supplementary documents and have their visas rejected. The rate is higher; data on visa rejections for Chinese applicants is unknown.

The report pointed out that currently 81% of electrical engineering graduate students and 79% of computer graduate students in American universities are international students. “Judging from the current policies, this government obviously does not want these people to stay in the U.S. American jobs.

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