H1B visa

The U.S Department of State announced major changes to the Visa interview waiver policy in 2024. If you plan to study or work in the U.S or just visit, you need to hear this.

In this guide, you will learn what the announcement means and how it may affect you. This informative guide simplifies the recent changes to the 2024 Visa Interview Waiver Program, a crucial update for those looking to study, work, or reside in the USA.

This guide breaks down the new eligibility criteria, the application process, and what these changes mean for applicants. Whether renewing your visa or applying for the first time under this program, this comprehensive guide simplifies the process, ensuring you’re fully informed and prepared.

USA Visa Interview Waiver Policy Updates for 2024

After consulting the Department of Homeland Security, the Secretary of State has determined that select categories of interview waivers are in the national interest. The policy applies to U.S non-immigrant visas.

These are visas issued to temporary visitors to the USA. The most common non-immigrant visas are:

• B1 and V2 visas for business, visitors, and tourists,
• F and M visas for students, and
• H visas for various workers.

There are many non-immigrant categories, but it won’t be listed to keep this guide short. Remember, the policy applies to all non-immigrant categories, unless noted.

Let’s review the rules quickly and break them down for different visa categories.

The changes are implemented by the consular officers, who now have the authority and discretion to waive the in-person interview. This means that the visa officers are deciding whether to waive your visa interview based on the guidelines we’re about to review.

However, the key takeaway is that they can still request an applicant who meets the visa waiver category to come in for an in-person interview.

• Criteria 1: Apply in your country of nationality or residence.

This means you’re applying in your country of citizenship or where you currently reside. For example, someone could be a citizen of India but work and live in Frankfurt, Germany. They can apply in India or Germany to qualify.

• Criteria 2: You’ve never been refused a visa unless such refusal was overcome or waived.

This means you’ve never been refused a visa or were initially rejected, but then approved later. For example, someone may have been denied on their first attempt, but have got their visa on their second attempt.

• Criteria 3: You have no apparent or potential eligibility.

This sounds vague, but what it really means is you don’t fall into select categories for which the U.S government doesn’t issue visas. These include individuals who may have criminal charges and may be a security risk or have violated immigration policies previously amongst others. This doesn’t apply to most cases.

On top of these three criteria, there are additional ones. Let’s review those in detail.

Remaining Criteria

• H-2 visa applicants.

You’re eligible for a visa waiver as long as you meet the first three criteria. For all other non-immigrant visa applicants, you must meet two additional criteria. They are:

You must have any U.S non-immigrant visa except a B visa. For example, you’ll qualify if you’re applying for an H-1B and have an F visa.

On the other hand, if you just have a B visa, you won’t qualify. For example, if you’re applying for an F1 visa and have a previous B1/B2 visa, you won’t be eligible for the interview waiver.

There is one slight nuance to it. Your last non-immigrant visa should be current or have expired no more than four years ago. This can get confusing, let’s take a look at three scenarios:

• If your last non-immigrant visa is active or has expired in 2021 or later, great news, you qualify.
• If your last non-immigrant visa has expired in 2019 or before, you don’t qualify.
• If your last non-immigrant visa expired in 2020, your expiration date should be after your potential visa appointment date.

For example, if your potential visa appointment date is on July first, 2024, your previous visa should not have expired before July first, 2020.

This cut-off date can get tricky, so if you fall into this category, you should put in your application immediately to improve your chances of qualifying for the interview waiver.

Also, it’s important to remember that the visa officers can still require you to come in. Finally, the US government can change this policy at any time. It’s likely to stick through the end of 2024.

That wraps up about the updates on the U.S visa interview waiver policy changes for 2024.

Some frequently asked questions about Visa Interview Waiver Policy Updates for 2024 and answers.

Question: Do you know if L1B (blanket petition) is also eligible for visa interview waiver in 2024?

Answer: It is a non-immigrant visa, so as long as applicants meet the criteria, they should qualify for an interview waiver.

Question: Is 352 days ban news true for refused f1 candidates?

Answer: This news is not official, check official website.

Disclaimer: This site is not owned by any U.S Government Agency or an Immigration attorney. The contents in the site is for informational purpose only, collected from various public domains. You may need to contact an Immigration Attorney for your specific immigration needs.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you. Thanks.

In this guide, you will learn some possible H4 visa interview questions and example answers to help you pass this test.

What is H4 Visa?

H4 Visa is a United States (U.S) visa. It is issued to a dependent family member of H1B, H1B1, H2A, H2B, H3 visa holders. It allows you to travel to the USA with the primary visa holder. A dependent must be a spouse or children below 21 years.

To get an H4 visa, you need to pass an interview test. Accordingly, schedule an appointment for biometrics and visa interviews.

The H4 visa interview takes place at the US Embassy or Consulate. The interview takes place to evaluate the credibility of your marriage since H4 is a marriage-based visa.

Types of H4 Visa Interview Questions

The H4 visa interview questions and answers are divided into 4 categories. These include questions and answers about –

• You
• Your marriage
• H4 visa
• Your spouse

H4 Visa Interview Questions and Answers

Below are common H4 dependent visa interview questions under these categories listed.

Questions and Answers About You

1. Where will you live in America?

Hint: Provide the name of the town or city you will be residing in the US

2. What are your plans to do in the USA?

Hint: Here, an immigration officer seeks an honest answer. Hence, provide a short yet truthful answer.

3. Do you have family members besides your spouse in America?

Hint: If yes, provide a detailed brief about your family members.

4. Do you wish to work in America?

Hint: The U.S administration withdrew the restriction on the work permit of the H4 visa holder. It means that individuals can work against meeting prescribed eligibility criteria. Therefore, answer this accordingly.

5. Whom do you live with presently?

Hint: Answer honestly. For instance, you live with your in-laws or parents.

6. What is your residential town or city in your native country?

Hint: Mention your current residential city or town.

7. With whom will you reside in the United States?

Hint: Mention that you will be living with your spouse.

8. Who is going to support you financially in the United States?

Hint: State that your spouse will be supporting you financially to stay in the United States.

Questions and Answers About Your Marriage

9. Is there any photograph or legal document proof of your marriage?

Hint: Carry important documents like a marriage certificate and a wedding photograph as document proof of your marriage.

10. What was the date of your marriage? For how many years have you been married to your spouse?

Hint: Answer this question directly and appropriately.

11. Was your marriage arranged or love? If arranged, who arranged it?

Hint: If anyone arranged your marriage, provide his or her details. It can be your parents, cousins or friends.

12. What was the location of your marriage?

Hint: Here you need to provide a detailed answer, stating the city, state and country’s name.

13. Was there any engagement before you got married to your spouse?

Hint: In case of engagement before marriage, you need to showcase proof of the same.

14. What was the total expenditure of your marriage? Who financed it?

Hint: Furnish the details with relevant information or documents, if any.

15. When and where did you meet your spouse for the first time?

Hint: If you cannot remember the exact date, mention the year or month.

Questions and Answers About H4 Visa

16. Which visa are you applying for?

Hint: Provide a direct answer that you are applying for an H4 visa.

17. Why do you want an H4 visa?

Hint: You need an H4 visa because you want to visit the United States along with your spouse (H1B visa holder).

18. Have you scheduled an appointment by yourself?

Hint: Don’t hesitate to answer if you didn’t make an appointment by yourself. Mention if anyone else has scheduled it for you. Also, state a legitimate reason why you could not schedule an appointment.

19. When did your spouse receive approval for an H1B visa?

Hint: Provide the accurate approval date, month and year for an H1B visa.

20. How did you collect all necessary documents for this interview?

Hint: Give an appropriate answer as per the requirement.

21. Why did you not attend the H4 visa interview with your spouse?

Hint: Provide an honest reason for why you did not attend this interview with your spouse.

Questions and Answers About Your Spouse

22. From which University did your spouse graduate? What is the highest educational degree of your spouse?

Hint: Provide the University’s name and year of graduation of your spouse. For the second question, mention the highest educational degree your spouse completed.

23. When is your spouse’s birthday?

Hint: Answer the exact date, month and year of birth of your spouse.

24. What is the name of the organisation your spouse is currently working in? Where is its location?

Hint: Mention the name of the organisation where your spouse is currently working. In the case of the second question, mention the location details of the organisation.

25. How long has the current company employed your spouse?

Hint: Provide the accurate month, year and date for which your spouse has been associated with the current company.

26. What is the profession of your spouse?

Hint: Provide the details of your spouse’s profession and the associate job description.

27. What is the annual income of your spouse?

Hint: You need to submit proof to verify your answer. Hence, your answer must be honest.

28. Do you have your spouse’s bank statement?

Hint: Submit your spouse’s bank statement and receipts to the immigration officer.

29. Does your spouse currently stay in the United States?

Hint: If the answer is yes, provide an accurate answer on the date, month and year of his or her stay.

30. Is your spouse a U.S citizen? If not, has he or she applied for a green card?

Hint: Provide an appropriate answer, don’t lie, be sincere.

How to Prepare Yourself for an H4 Visa Interview?

Once you know H4 visa questions and answers, prepare yourself by following these 4 tips:

• Be on Time

Reach the venue 30 to 20 minutes before the scheduled time with all the required documents. Arriving early will also allow you to stay calm during the interview process.

• Answer Confidently

Answer H4 visa questions clearly. It is one of the essential factors that determine the given visa approval. Skipping or providing false information can eliminate your chances to get an H4 visa. It is because the immigration officer verifies your answers with relevant documents.

• Keep the Documents Ready

As you can find from the questions mentioned above, you need to provide certain documents to verify your answers. This includes marriage certificates, bank statements and other essential files. It is wise to keep a copy of those documents ready to submit whenever asked.

• Check Your Documents

Review your documents carefully. All details such as name, birthdate and other information in it will be printed on the visa. Hence any potential mistake in data can be a hassle later.

Additionally, when you receive your visa, check it carefully. If you notice any errors, report them the appropriate place immediately.

Make sure to prepare yourself with H4 visa interview questions for quick visa approval.

DISCLAIMER: This post/guide and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any legal advice, not offering any visa too. If you need legal advice, you should seek the advice of an attorney in your jurisdiction before taking any legal action.

The information presented in this post/guide should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

Do and don’ts in U.S visa interview: In this guide, you will learn top 5 mistakes that people do when they appear for visa interview. Are you ready to learn those top mistakes people do inside the interview room and how to avoid them? Let’s get right into the full details.

Many people get their visas denied not because they don’t have good funding or they don’t prove ties to their home country, no, that is not the point. Many people get their visas denied because of some attitude that happened during the interview room.

Your poster, attitude and behavior you take into the interview room can affect your visa approval.

Top 5 Mistakes People do Inside the Visa interview Room and How to avoid them

Below are top 5 Mistakes People do Inside the Visa interview Room and tips on how to avoid them:

1. Fear.

A lot of people enter the interview room with fear. They go inside the interview with a lot of misconceptions and others who have heard so much about the interview process that makes them afraid.

There are some people who become so anxious about the process that all that they are thinking of is getting my visa approved, getting my visa approved. So they go into the interview room with a lot of anxiousness and fear.

One thing fear does is that when you go into the interview room with fear, it affects the way you flow, it affects how you express yourself and ultimately your visa gets denied. Consulares are looking for people who can speak and defend their case with confidence.

So when you go to the interview room, even if you have good story, you must present your good story with confidence, not fear. The best way you can overcome fear is to prepare well for the interview by practicing sample questions and how you answer them.

2. Don’t decide the V.O or Consular you want.

Many people get their visas refused because during the interview they decide the kind of consular they want to go and those they want to avoid.

The fact that a consular is denying people that does not mean when you go, you will be denied. Many people go to the interview room and because in the interview room we can hear what has happened, we can see and hear consulares approving and rejecting people, it affect their focus.

Make sure that inside the interview room you remain focused irrespective of whatever is going on around you, irrespective of whether the consulares are approving people or they are not approving people. Go and perform, and go and present your case.

Also, many people have heard a lot about some consular. Even before they enter the interview room, they are hoping to avoid that consular because one of their friends told them that this consular is wicked, this consular do not get visa approved.

So assuming you go with this mindset and it is that consular that you go to, it will affect you and it will affect your performance and your visa will be refused because you wouldn’t get the confidence and the courage to defend yourself. So avoid that.

Go to the interview room prepared. Irrespective of who will interview you, go to the interview room prepared.

The U.S consulares are trained equally and although they are individuals who have their personal judgment, when you go and prove and establish that you qualify for the visa, your visa will be approved.

Every consular is put there to make sure that they approve visa. They approved qualified people. If you qualify and you meet their satisfaction, you answer your questions so well, your visa will be approved.

3. Don’t Speak Too Much.

Speaking too much is part of the common mistake that people do. Many people visa get rejected because they spoke too much. They don’t answer questions based on what the consular asks them. They try to be impressive. They try to impress the consular by speaking too much.

In the interview room, you don’t give more information than the consular needs. Always understand that the interview is detected by your response. The response you give to the consular may require a follow-up.

If you know you are giving a response that you cannot back it up with a follow up question, avoid it. Make sure that you speak briefly and give only the information the consular needs. Don’t try to impress by speaking too much, talking too much, speaking too much grammar and trying to be somebody you are not.

4. Don’t show documents until you’re asked

When you enter the visa interview room, don’t show documents when you have not been asked to.

For example, there are some people, when the consular asks them who is funding you? They will say is their uncle, aunty or they give a lot of good explanation and they say this is the document, no, that is wrong.

Always allow the console to ask for documents before you show it. Because when the consular is convinced or not convinced and he/she needs a document, he/she will ask you. So be brief and don’t talk too much.

5. Lack of clear communication.

A lot of people get rejected not because they don’t have good stories, not because they don’t have good details, good scholarship, or they didn’t improve ties to their home country, they get rejected because the consular did not hear anything they said.

The consular did not hear any of the answer they gave. They were not able to communicate clearly to the consular.

Make sure that when you are communicating or you are speaking, you speak clear English that the consular will understand. Take your time and speak slowly but clearly for the consular to hear what you are saying, to hear the story you are telling, to hear the point you are making. That is one of the most common mistakes that you can do.

Somebody comes out of the interview, the person gives you his/her transcript and you can see that nothing is wrong with the transcript and according to the transcript the person really spoke with but the problem is the person did not speak for the consular to hear.

The consular did not hear anything that the person said. Also, there are some people, when the consular asks them questions, they don’t hear the question, but they are afraid and they fail to ask the consular to politely repeat their question.

So if you go for the Visa interview and the consular asks you a question you didn’t hear, politely asking to repeat, don’t just assume and speak or answer a question you didn’t hear clearly. This is another mistake that affects a lot of Visa approval.

I hope that this information is useful to you. Thanks.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice. If you need legal advice, you may contact a licensed attorney.

Are you a nonimmigrant in the U.S with an expired U.S visa? If so, in this guide you will learn how to travel in and out of the U.S with an expired U.S visa using the automatic visa revalidation rule.

You will also learn 6 best travel tips to follow when traveling using the Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule. So make sure to read this guide through to the end as you’re going to find this information very helpful.

What is Automatic Visa Revalidation?

The Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule is a U.S immigration policy that allows certain nonimmigrants to re-enter the U.S after traveling to Canada or Mexico for a period of 30 days or less with an expired U.S visa.

Automatic visa Revalidation Countries

If you are a nonimmigrant in an F or J visa status, you’re also allowed to visit adjacent Islands in the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico for a period of 30 days or less and be able to re-enter the U.S with an expired F or J visa.

These adjacent Islands in the Caribbean include countries such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, San Pierre, and Trinidad, just to mention a few. For a full list of countries defined as adjacent Islands, you can use search engines to get more.

U.S nonimmigrant travelers who seek to use the Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule must have in their possession an unexpired admission stamp or paper form I-94 at the time they seek to re-enter the U.S.

Automatic Revalidation and Change of Status

The Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule is also applicable to nonimmigrants in the US who have changed their status but have not obtained a new U.S visa for the new status.

For example, if you successfully changed your F1 status to an H1B status but have not obtained an H1B visa;

• you’ll be able to re-enter the US with an expired F1 visa to be admitted into the H1B status or
• you could re-enter the US with your current F1 visa into an H1B status.

Who is eligible for Automatic Visa Revalidation?

Let’s talk about some required documents you must have in order to be eligible to re-enter the U.S using the Automatic Visa Revalidation.

• As mentioned earlier, you need to present a valid admission stamp or in the case of someone who entered the U.S at a land border crossing, you need to present a valid paper Form I-94. This admission stamp or paper form I-94 must show that your duration of stay in the U.S is unexpired.
• You must have a valid passport and an expired U.S visa, and it is okay if your current passport does not contain your expired U.S visa.
• For nonimmigrants in the F and J status, you must provide a valid Form I-20 or valid form DS-2019, respectively.
• Most importantly, you must have been absent from the U.S for a period of 30 days or less while visiting Canada or Mexico, and if you happen to be an F or J visa holder, you can also visit adjacent Islands, as discussed previously.
• In the case that you’ve been approved for change of status but have not obtained a new visa for the new status, you must present a Form I-797, Notice of Approval at the time of your re-entry into the US.
• You must have been in good standing and had maintained your U.S status at the time of your departure from the U.S.

Who is NOT eligible for Automatic Visa Revalidation?

Let’s talk about the category of nonimmigrants who are not allowed to use the automatic Visa Revalidation rule.

1. Nonimmigrants from countries listed as state sponsors of terrorism.

Nonimmigrants travelers from countries listed as State Sponsors of Terrorism are not allowed to use the automatic visa revalidation. The United States Department of State maintains an updated list of countries listed as State Sponsors of Terrorism.

2. Nonimmigrants who traveled outside of Canada or Mexico or an Adjacent Island during the 30-day absence from the US.

For example, a nonimmigrant traveler with an expired H1B visa holder who travels to Canada and then travels to Europe and comes back to Canada and tries to re-enter the U.S would not be able to use the Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule.

3. Nonimmigrant Who Applies for a U.S Visa during the 30-Day Absence

Applying for a U.S visa in Canada, Mexico, or an Adjacent Island country during your 30-day absence from the U.S immediately disqualifies you from using the automatic visa revalidation rule to re-enter the U.S.

In the event that you apply for a U.S visa during your 30-day absence and your visa is rejected, you would have to obtain a valid visa to re-enter the U.S.

Travel Tips when Using Automatic Visa Revalidation

Let now look at the six best travel tips to follow when traveling using the Automatic Visa Revalidation. These tips here are for educational purposes only.

Tip 1: Print out an article from the Department of Homeland Security’s website that explains the Automatic Visa Revalidation rule.

You always want to have this print out in your possession any time you encounter a U.S Customs official or an airline representative. You will get more information from the Homeland Security’s web page that explains the automatic visa revalidation.

You will found it easier to explain the Automatic Visa Revalidation rule to an airline representative who is not familiar with the rule by simply providing a print out from the Homeland securities web page that explains the automatic Visa revalidation.

Tip 2: Contact the airline you’re going to be flying and ask them if they have any restrictions against passengers who plan to use the automatic Visa Revalidation rule.

Some Airlines might have very strict policies that prevent anyone with an expired visa from even attempting to board a flight to the U.S, so you need to be aware of this information before planning your trip to depart the U.S.

Tip 3: If you happen to have a paper form I-94, you must not surrender your I-94 to any airline representative who asks you to.

This is because during your re-entry to the U.S, a Customs official will need to see your paper from I-94 in order to admit you back into the U.S.

Tip 4: Nonimmigrants who may have applied for a change of status and have been approved for a change of status but have not obtained a visa for the new visa status.

If you’ve been approved for a change of status but have not obtained a new visa for your new status, you need to make sure to be in possession of your form. I-797 Notice of Approval during your re-entry to the US.

Tip 5: Nonimmigrants should obtain a valid Travel Signature if you’re in an F and J status.

If you are in the F or J status, you should contact your designated school official (DSO) and obtain a travel signature prior to your departure from the U.S.

Note: Depending on your enrollment status, your travel signature may be valid for 1 year (for full-time students) or 6 months (for students on post-completion OPT).

Tip 6: Be polite and courteous when interacting with an airline official or U.S Customs Officer who may not be familiar with the Automatic Visa Revalidation Rule.

If you happen to come across an airline official or U.S Customs Officer who’s not familiar with this rule, you should politely ask to speak with a supervisor or someone more experienced who may be familiar with the automatic visa revalidation rule.

When you make your travel itinerary to return to the U.S using the automatic Visa revalidation rule, you should leave more time in your schedule for clearing customs and immigration.

This way you could exercise patience when dealing with airline representatives and customs officers and not panic about missing your flight.

Frequently asked question on Automatic Visa Revalidation Experience

Below is one commonly and frequently asked question which nonimmigrants travelers do ask:

Question: What can I expect at the U.S Port of Entry when using the automatic revalidation rule?

Answer: Re-entering the U.S Port of Entry using automatic revalidation is very similar to the entry experience of someone with a valid U.S visa.

The U.S Customs and Border Patrol Officer at the Primary Inspection booth would inspect your travel documents and would request you provide any other documents required for your visa to be revalidated.

Be prepared to answer questions about your trip and your nonimmigrant status.

If your primary inspection is successful, your passport will be stamped, indicating a visa revalidation date of the current date.

If you found this guide informative, please make sure you share it to your friends.

DISCLAIMER: This guide and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. The information presented in this guide should not be construed to be formal legal advice. If you need legal advice, you may contact a licensed attorney.

In this guide, we will learn how to transition from the F1 visa to the H-1B visa as an international student on F1 Optional Practical Training (OPT) or STEM OPT. This is particularly for international students who are F1 visa holders.

That’s it’s not to say that if you’re a J1 visa holder you cannot get an H-1B. But it’s just that as a J1 visa holder, your transition to the H-1B will be a lot different from someone who has an F1 visa.

This guide give you details about the most important things every F1 international student must know about transitioning from an F1 visa to a H-1B visa. For most international student, this transition will occur during the Post Completion OPT or STEM OPT.

Make sure you read this guide until the end because it’s going to give you a lot of good tips that you should keep in mind when thinking of transitioning from the F1 visa to the H-1B visa.

Basics of the H-1B visa

The first thing about the H-1B visa you should know is that this is called an Employer Sponsored Visa and that means that unlike your F1 visa, you cannot apply for the H-1B visa by yourself, only a U.S based employer can apply for the H-1B on your behalf.

The H-1B visa, unlike your F1 student visa, allows you to live and work in the U.S for up to six years.

Apart from the H-1B work visa, there are other temporary work visas that you might be eligible for, such as the E1, O1, and the TN work visas.

Checkout this guide title, How to Get a U.S Work Visa, to learn different temporary work visas that you can get to live and work in the U.S.

Generally, the H-1B visa tends to be the most common type of work visas that many nonimmigrants choose to use to live and work in the U.S on a temporary basis.

If you’ve heard of the H-1B visa, it tends to be associated as a lottery based visa, which means that you can only get the visa after you’ve been picked in the lottery. Although that’s not the only way of getting the H-1B visa.

How to Get H-1B Visa

There are two ways you can get the H-1B visa.

1. One way is called a Cap Subject H-1B visa that is limited to 85,000 visas every year.

That’s the class of the H-1B visa that you can get only after getting picked in the lottery.

2. The other class of H-1B visa is called an H-1B Cap Exempt visa.

This cap exempt visa is typically given to nonprofit organizations such as U.S universities and U.S research labs. With the cap exempt H-1B visa, you need not go through a lottery system to get it.

Getting H-1B Visa as an F1 Visa International Student

One thing to note about the H-1B visa as an F1 Visa student is that in order for you to get the H-1B visa, the job for which your employer is sponsoring your visa needs to require at least a bachelor’s degree.

So this makes the H-1B visa perfect for international students who are already in the U.S and seeking to change their status from an F1 visa to the H-1B visa without leaving the U.S.

In U.S, some companies have policies where they’re never going to hire anyone who is not at least a permanent resident of the U.S, particularly because they have certain government restrictions in the industry that requires them to only hire people who have a green card or people who are U.S citizens.

Also, there are some smaller companies that don’t want to hire foreign nationals, such as international students, because from their perspective, they don’t want to go through the cost prohibitive nature of the H-1B visa process just to hire an employee when they wouldn’t have to do the same if the person was a U.S citizen or green card holder.

So if you’re really serious about getting an H-1B visa to live and work in the U.S after you’re done with your F1 status, there’s no point wasting your time looking for jobs with these kinds of companies.

Filling H-1B

When it comes to filing the H-1B, a logical question you could have is, how much does it cost for the H-1B filing process? Typically, the cost of filing an H-1B visa on the part of your employer could be varying.

One of the keys to getting the H-1B visa is making sure that you can find a job with the U.S employer who is H-1B friendly. Because one of the mistakes you don’t want to make is to get a job with a company when you have the intention of getting an H-1B visa, and then when you request that they file for your H-1B visa, they tell you that they don’t sponsor H-1B visas.

If you’re going the route of getting the Cap Subject H-1B visa, you need to keep in mind the timeline you have to get in the H-1B visa while you’re still on an F1 visa status. The reason for this is that your chances of getting the H-1B visa through the lottery system is never guaranteed.

If you’re going to be working with a company that plans to file an H-1B Cap Subject petition for you, then you have a limited number of times that the company could try to file for your H-1B while you’re still on your Optional Practical Training (OPT) period.

This will become very important if you’re an F1 Visa student who is not eligible to get the STEM OPT. So if you’re an F1 Visa student who is working for the employer on your OPT, you only have one chance to get the H-1B visa with that employer.

On the other hand, if you’re an F1 Visa student who is eligible for STEM OPT, then you have at least three times to secure the H-1B visa while you’re working on your OPT and STEM OPT.

Something else to consider is your graduation date and when your OPT ends. For example, if you’re an F1 Visa student who’s going to be graduating in the fall semester, which is in December, this would mean that you’re going to be ending your first year of post completion OPT for ten months from December, which brings you to February, two years from the year you graduated.

On the other hand, if you’re a spring semester graduate who finishes in May, then this would mean that your first full year of post completion OPT is going to be ending in the month of July, the following year after you graduated.

Again, something else that’s important to note about the Cap Subject H-1B visa is that the lottery system happens in late March of every calendar year, and it’s only after you’ve been selected in the lottery system that your employer could then file an H-1B petition on your behalf.

If you’re an F1 Visa student who only has one chance to get the H-1B visa during your OPT, then it’s very important that your employer files for your H-1B visa within the first few months of you working on your post completion OPT.

If you’re a spring graduate who’s going to start your post completion OPT after the month of May, this means that you already would have missed the window of opportunity that opened in March shortly before you graduated. So your only chance of getting the H-1B visa is going to be in the next year shortly before your OPT ends.

As the spring graduate, if you’ve already received an offer month before you graduate in May, you can ask your employer to file an H-1B petition for you before you graduate.

This way, instead of having only one chance to get the H-1B the next year after you graduate, you can have two chances of getting the H-1B.

One advantage you have as a spring graduate who finishes in May over a graduate who finishes in December, is that you could be eligible to get the Cap gap extension if you were selected in the H-1B lottery and your employer filed an attorney petition on your behalf before your OPT expired.

So these are some considerations that you need to keep in mind if you’re going to be transitioning from an F1 visa to an H-1B visa.

For many F1 visa students who are trying to transition from the F1 visa to the H-1B visa, the fact that you have a chance of getting selected in the H-1B lottery is very worrisome.

A lottery based selection system is one thing that’s totally out of your control and the best way to navigate this transition is to always be optimistic but making sure that you have a plan B.

Read: How the U.S Visa Works | Step by Step Guide For Beginners

I hope you found this guide very insightful. Thanks for reading.

DISCLAIMER: This guide and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. The information presented in this guide should not be construed to be formal legal advice. If you need legal advice, you may contact a licensed attorney.