S Amends US H1B1, EB1, CW1 and E3 Visa Rules

United States, 29^th January: US Visa rules for H1B1 Visas, EB1 visas, E3 Visas and CW1 non-immigrant classifications have been revised in a latest announcement.

The US aims to bring desired improvements in the above mentioned US visa schemes for better services while removing any barriers.

US H1B1 visa changes—Well, let’s first talk of US H1B1 visa changes. It’s a US visa meant for specialty workers having at least one bachelor’s degree. The US reserves 6,800 US H1B visa classification out of the 65,000 visas allocated for capped US H1B visa scheme. 5,400 are for Singapore nationals. 1,400 are meant for Chilean citizens.

Meanwhile, it needs to be notable that these visa annual quotas seldom get reached each year. So, this gives benefits to nationals of Singapore and Chile.

<blockquote> US announced revisions to its US H1B1 visa program, E3 Visa program, E3and CW1 visa program recently to make the programs effective while removing any barriers whatsoever. </blockquote>

US EB1 visas—US EB1 visa program which happens to be an employment based immigration program is a first preference visa for US employment based permanent residency facility. This is meant for those considered to be as priority workers by the US.

It comprises managers and executives of foreign firms transferred to the US or foreigners possessing extraordinary skills or those considered to be as outstanding researchers or professors. The holder of the US EB1 visa can live in the US permanently.

US CW1 visa for employers in CNMI—The US CW1 visa happens to be a specific US visa program enabling employers in the CNMI(Commonwealth of the North Marian Islands) to applying for temporary authority to hire foreign and non-immigrant workers who would not get qualified otherwise for other US non-immigrant visa programs.

Each year, an annual cap is effective for US CW1 visas, however, the cap is not fixed and hence varies every year. The validity duration of US CW1 visas is for 12 months.

US E3 Visas for Australia nationals—This special US visa is meant especially for Australian nationals under the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement introduced on 11^th May, 2005. Its quite similar to the US H1B visa program. However, the major difference between the US H1B visa program and the US E3 visa is that spouses of US E3 Visa holders can work in the US while making an application for employment authorization using the required form I-765.

Under the US H1B visa program, spouses of US H1B visa holders are required to have a separate US work visa for working in the US.

There is a separate annual intake of 10,500 US E3 visas for Australians.