Status of H1B visas is expected to be full in the first few days.

In the midst of concerns in India and many other foreign nations that there would be reduction in the number of H-1B visas, which has till date attracted many Indian professionals, one of the best immigration expert says that the quota of 65,000 would be capped as the filing starts from the 1st of April.

Immigration attorney Morley J Nair said that due to the recession this year and looking at the prevalent layoffs, one generally feels that there would not be the same number of petitions as it was during previous years.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received somewhere around 163,000 petitions in the year 2008, which included 31,000 petitions against the US advanced degree category in the initial five days after the filing started, which resulted in a lottery.

Nair said that in spite of the considerably reduced number of petitions, chances are that the quota would get finalized within the first few days.

He said in a statement that the same can be done even with a reduction of 55 percent in the general quota from last year and 35 percent from the advanced degree quota.

He urged potential employers to act smartly and get ready to file the cap-subject H-1B petitions on the 1st of April.

The current annual quota for H-1B visas is 65,000, including the reservations of 6,800 for citizens of Singapore and Chile. Majority of H-1B visas are acquired by Indian professionals.

In addition to these, a special quota of 20,000 visas is also there that are provided to advanced degree holders from US graduate schools. Also, there are some employers who are free from this quota.

Earlier, Indian professionals and top IT chiefs had requested the US Congress and the Obama led government to remove the restriction in the number of H-1B visas, which help people from foreign nations to live and work in the US.

The Fiscal Year begins on the 1st of October and petitions for foreign workers can be filed from a period of six months before the start of employment. Therefore, the filing would start on the 1st of April, 2009.

Nair said that another reason for reaching the cap sooner would be the large number of foreign students studying in the US whose petitions for advanced degree category weren’t picked last year in the lottery. So, in addition to these already eager and deserving candidates, those who graduate later would put additional demand on the category.