• General Requirements for H1B Visas
  
  • The foreign national must have a U.S. bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Experience can be used to make up for two years worth of college, with three years of experience being equivalent to one year of college.
  • The position for which the foreign national is being sponsored must be a "specialty occupation" (i.e., it must require at least a U.S. bachelor's degree or its foreign equivalent for a person to be qualified for the position).
  • The sponsoring employer must certify that it will pay the foreign national the prevailing wage for the position for which (s)he is being sponsored, plus other attestations. See the Labor Certification Application (LCA) page for additional details.
    

A H1B visa petition is filed on an Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") Form I-129, along with an H-Supplement and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Labor Condition Application, Form ETA-9035.

A H1B visa petition is processed by the INS Service Center that handles petitions from the states for which it is responsible. For information on the INS Service Centers, click here. The INS petition must be accompanied by documentation which the job to be filled by the foreign national being sponsored involves a specialty occupation; as well as evidence that the foreign national being sponsored has the necessary credentials to qualify for a specialty occupation. If the foreign national has a foreign degree, an "educational evaluation" must be completed by a recognized evaluation service to ensure that the foreign degree is equivalent to a bachelor's degree from a U.S. college or university. If the foreign national's degree is not equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree, appropriate experience can be used to make up this difference.

If the foreign national is overseas, the INS will notify the appropriate U.S. consulate. The foreign national can then take the INS' approval notice to a U.S. consulate to obtain a H1B visa in his/her passport. Only then can the foreign national enter the United States.

If the foreign national is already in the United States (e.g., on a F1 student visa), the foreign national may start working for his/her sponsoring employer as soon as the H1B petition is approved.