Master's degree can Increase the Chances of H-1B Visa

International students who pursue Master’s or finish a higher programme in an accredited non-profit US university have a higher chance of getting the H-1B visa from this year onwards as per the new US visa norms.

The US government on an annual basis gives 85,000 H-IB visas which include 65,000 under the regular cap and 20,000 for MA or higher degree holders from the US universities every year.

The government has started getting a high number of petitions as compared to the slot available every year and visas were being given through the lottery system. So, petitioners who have a Master’s or a higher degree from the US University are given preference in the lottery system. Those who were not able to get the visa were shifted to the regular cap. Here, also the lottery process was being followed for choosing the petitioners.

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From this year, the US government has changed the selection process and as per that, the lottery process for (65000 H-1B slot) will be done first with all petitions, including the ones filed by the MA degree holders and employers. The new process will help petitioners who have done master’s or higher degree a second chance of getting the H-IB visa under the master cap (20,000 slot).

This new H-1B process will help international students who have completed their master’s or higher degree from US non-profit universities, G Narsi Reddy, a US education expert said.

As per the US Department of Homeland Security estimates, the new process will help in increasing the number of H-1B visas for a master’s degree or higher from non-profit universities to 16 percent which means 5,340 visas. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) got 2,01,011 petitions for H-1B visas this fiscal and the registrations for it began on April 1, 2019. By April 5, USCIS got the right number of registrations. The computer-generated random selection process to choose H-1B petitions for the regular and master cap was done recently.

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