Lost the H-1B Lottery? Visa Options for Employers Wishing to Hire or Retain Professional Employees

Employers wishing to hire or retain foreign national employees in need of visa sponsorship have traditionally used the H-1B category, which allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. Unfortunately, many employers are subject to an annual cap of 85,000 new H-1B visas, with 20,000 reserved for foreign nationals holding advanced degrees from U.S. colleges and universities.

In recent years, USCIS has received hundreds of thousands of H-1B petitions subject to the annual cap, forcing immigration to conduct a lottery to select petitions for processing. If your H-1B petition was not selected in this year’s lottery, there may be options available to hire or retain professional employees to include:

• Cap-exempt H-1B visas
• TN visas
• H-1B1 visas
• E-1 and E-2 visas
• E- 3 visas
• L visas
• OPT, STEM OPT, and CPT for foreign students
• Sponsorship for permanent residency

1.0 hour CLE credit pending. This program is valid for 1.0 PDCs for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® and HRCI credit

Questions? Contact Courtney Brown at cbrown@btlaw.com or (317) 231-7312.