American work visa applications not meeting expectations

The American work visa application numbers for the 2010 year have not yet reached expectations, reports the BBC News.

The American work visa, or H1B visa, allows American companies to recruit skilled workers from overseas, and every year the American government opens its doors to 65,000 American work visa applications.

Typically, the American work visa quota would be filled within the first week of the Government opening the program for application, yet this year, because big companies such as Microsoft have cooled down their overseas recruitment program, the American work visa quota is far from being filled.

Eight weeks since the Government began inviting applications (or petitions) for the H1B visa program, and with just over three months until the 2010 quota year begins, only 45,000 have been received.

The change in trend has been welcomed by the smaller companies sourcing overseas workers through the American work visa scheme, who are usually pushed out by the larger US companies and Indian software companies such as Infosys.

Sharon Scheidhauer from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in New York City has encouraged more skilled workers to get their American work permit applications in for processing while their chances are still high for approval.

"We are still accepting petitions, so folks who are interested should apply and get their petitions in," she said.

The American work visa application process is not an easy one; documents, photos and brochures of the office need to be included, as well as client letters, work orders, tax returns, and contracts, making it difficult to attain an H1B visa.

The American Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in American visa and immigration services.