Check Current H-1B Visa Application Processing or Wait Time

 

From US Department of State Website, you can now check:

1. Current Wait Time for H-1B Visa Interview Appointment
2. Current Processing Time or Wait Time for H-1B Visa Application (for cases which are not referred to 221(g) Administrative Process)

All you have to do, is to go to US Department of State Website

Select your desired Location from the drop down list and click “GET WAIT TIMES” button. Both Wait and Processing Times of selected Location will be displayed on the following page.

Please Share Your H-1B Information ANONYMOUSLY to Help Others

 

Dear readers,

I’ve setup a live form at the right side of this blog. If you have applied for the H-1B Petition ever, you are requested to kindly fill this form. This effort is to anonymously collect and publish the data for common good of all.

You can also view all the submissions made through this form, at the bottom of this page.

Thanks!

Syed Muhammad Humayun

H-1B Petition I-129 Processing Time and Trends

 

This post is a part of series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

Current Trends – As of today i.e. 16th December 2012.

Following chart depicts the current I-129 Processing Time of USCIS National Average and Vermont Service Center. So, based on current trend, if your petition will be filed at Vermont Service Center, a decision might be taken in 2.1 months from the actual date of filing. A decision could be Approval Notice, Rejection or an RFE.

Following chart shows the I-129 Processing Volume Trend of Vermont Service Center.

Following chart shows National Trend for I-129 Processing Volume

Source – USCIS

How to view most current Processing Time, Volumes and Trends?

1. Go to https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard.do
2. From the second table at the bottom titled “Processing Times”:
1. Select a form type – select “I-129” and click “Next” button (page will refresh)
2. Select a form sub-type – select “H-1B – Specialty Occupation – Visa to be issued abroad” and click “Next” button (page will refresh)
3. Select an office – select any office you wish to view and click “Next” button (page will refresh)
4. Current Processing Time will be shown in the form of chart (similar to the chart shown above – the very first image above)
3. On the same page and just beneath the second table, there is a link “View national volumes and trends for all applications”. Click on that link and it will take you to a new page titles “National Processing Volumes and Trends”. From that page:
1. Select a form type – select “I-129”
2. Select an office – select any office you wish to see
3. Select chart type – select any chart you wish to see
4. Click on the button “Get Results”. Page will refresh and you will see two charts similar to the one shown above – last 2 images)

Why Request for Evidence (RFE)?–Recent Trends

 

On a mission to eradicate fraud, USCIS is increasingly responding to petitions with burdensome Requests for Evidence (RFE). Over the past years, different trends has been observed, such as:

End Client

The USCIS recently changed the format of their Requests for Evidence (RFE) for petitions where the employee is located at a client site. In the past, the focus of these types of RFEs centered around the employer/employee relationship, but now, they have started questioning whether the position at the end-client requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.

These RFEs seem to be targeted at IT staffing companies because they include language that says that the record indicates the petitioner “is in the business of locating persons with computer-related backgrounds and placing these individuals in positions with firms that use such personnel to complete their projects.”

The RFEs suggest that in order to overcome USCIS's doubts, employers must provide copies of signed contracts, master agreements, work orders, statements of work, services agreements and letters between the employer and authorized officials of the ultimate end-client companies and that these documents should contain a description of the duties, the requirements for the position, salary, hours worked, benefits and a brief description of who will supervise the employee.

Education

The USCIS has in the past has placed an emphasis on education and has been issuing RFE where they are asking about:

1. Education evaluation from a reputable evaluation company. Further, if the evaluation requires a combination of education and experience to equate to either a 4 year degree or a degree that is relevant to the position, the USCIS is requiring evidence establishing the evaluator's credentials and qualifications. It is important that Sponsors who sponsor H1B applicants with foreign degrees get their evaluations from credible evaluation companies and that they submit the evidence regarding the evaluator’s credentials and qualifications.
2. How a person’s degree relates to the position. They are questioning this more frequently so it is important to verify that there is either classwork or experience that an H1B applicant can show in order to prove that their education/experience is relevant to the position that is being filed for on their behalf.

Right to Control

The USCIS continues to question an employer’s ability to control their employee when that employee is located off-site. Further, they question the employer’s employer/employee relationship and how the employer intends to maintain this while the employee is working at a client site.

These doubts have been raised since the Neufeld memo was published in 2010. An end-client letter which states that the project/assignment will last for 3 years resolves this issue, but in most cases, end-clients are hesitant to issue these types of letters as they feel that it can be construed as a contractual commitment to that consultant and their employer.

Other Notable Observations

• Although additional scrutiny has affected companies of all types and sizes, those that design and/or produce products are not nearly as hard hit as companies that provide IT services.
• USCIS is increasingly tallying and tracking cases filed by each company. Companies that file a disproportionately high number of petitions relative to its overall headcount often face more burdensome RFEs.

Receiving and Accepting the Offer from H-1B Work Visa Sponsor

 

This post is a part of series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

Once you clear the technical interview and are shortlisted by the H-1B Work Visa Sponsor, your second and last interview will be scheduled with the HR/Management. This interview serves a mean to interact with the management/HR of the company and sort of an introductory knowledge session about what company is all about, their vision, mission , future roadmaps etc.. It is very rare that a candidate who qualifies the technical interview, got rejected because of the evaluation results from his management/HR interview.

Next, the Sponsor will extend an offer to you verbally, which details your role, job description, salary, benefits, etc.. If you agree or after final negotiations, they will send you an Official Offer Letter on company’s letter head, which will be a proof of employment for you throughout your H-1B Work Visa processing.

Make sue you discuss and have a clear understanding on all of the following before accepting the offer:

1. Contract Type – Consultant or Employment
2. Sponsor’s % and your % in case of Consultant Contract OR per month Salary in case of Employment Contract
3. General idea of rates/salaries in prevailing market
4. General idea of Tax Deductions & your Take Home Salary

H-1B Work Visa–Sponsor’s Share or Profit

 

In my last post, I shared the salary brackets for Employment Contract and Consultant Contract. The feedback, that I received on that post, contains a number of queries and comments on huge difference in compensation between the two models. So, I thought it is in the best interest of all to discuss Sponsor’s Share or Profit in my next post.

This is a known fact that all companies who sponsor H-1B, do it to save or make some money:

1. Companies need resources for their in-house project/product development and they can get quality resources in a cheaper rate if they have the means and access to human resource markets like Pakistan, India, China, etc..
   [ Benefit – Save Money ] [ Contract Type – Employment ]
2. Companies also deploy resources to other clients and earn a % share from the salaries of those resources via the Corporate-to-Corporate (corp-to-corp or c2c) model.
   [ Benefit – Make Money ] [ Contract Type – Consultant ]

I will now continue the example from my previous post, to help you understand how sponsor companies make or save money as discussed above.

Based on the salary ranges I mentioned in my previous post, a Java Developer can sign:

1. An Employment Contract of US$ 3,500 per month, OR
2. A Consultant Contract of US$ 40 per hour

Let us now calculate the per month salary of this resource for option #2 i.e. Consultant Contract:

As a standard, each resource is required to work 8 hours per day and five weekdays a week from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday are weekend holidays. If we assume, there are 4 weekends in a month and an average month has 30 days then:

[ 30 (days in month) – 8 (weekend holidays) ] x 8 (hours per day) x 40 ($ per hour) = US$ 7,040 per month

This is more than double of what the resource can get on Employment Contract. So this seems un-fair or imbalance.  Actually it is not, because in case of Employment Contract, the resource is actually employed by the H-1B Sponsor itself, so sponsor already offered the resource a salary that is less than the prevailing market standard. And, this way the sponsor saves the money, because if they hire the same level of resource from the market that would cost them much more.

On the other hand, in Consultant Contract, the sponsor deploys the resource on to one of it’s client companies. The c2c contract between the sponsor and the client will mention US$ 40 per hour, but there will be a contract between the resource and the sponsor which states that a specific % of the resource’s salary will be shared with the sponsor

Based on recent trends:

70% to 80% will be the resource’s share

20% to 30% will be the sponsor’s share

So, if we apply the same to the compensation we calculated above:

US$ 7, 040 x 70 / 100 = US$ 4,928

Now, you can compare this compensation with that of Employment Contract:

Employment Contract – US$ 3,500 per month

Consultant Contract – US$ 4,928 per month

The difference between the two is:

US$ 3,500 per month – US$ 4,928 per month = US$ 1,428

That difference can be justified keeping the amount of risk involved in Consultant Contracts (for detail of risks please refer to my previous post).

I hope my post will help you understand different aspects of the contracts. A heads up for all you, this still is not a complete picture, there are deductions/taxation involved, which I will discuss in detail in my next post.

H-1B Work Visa–Recent Trends–Salary or Compensation

 

Salary brackets for fresh H-1B Candidates, who do not have any work experience in USA before, are as follows:

Developer (0 – 5 years of experience)
US$ 3,500 – 5,500 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 40 – 55 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Senior/Lead Developer (6+ years of experience)
US$ 5,500 – 7,000 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 55 – 80 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Why there’s a difference between Employment and Consultant Contract? please refer to my previous post which discuss the topic in detail.

In order to come up with a realistic estimate of your salary, you should consider following factors:

1. State & City/Area – Each state has a slightly different salary scale because they differ with others on following:
   1. Taxation Laws – Some tax more while others tax less
   2. Economic Activity – Some are Hub of economic activity while others are not
   3. Cost of Living – Some are cheaper while others are expensive
2. Client Profile – Whether your Client is a small or medium or large Enterprise OR it’s a fresh Start-up company (low funding or high funding?)
3. Quality of your Experience – Your foreign experience counts when you have worked for companies that have International presence of at-least presence in USA. On the other hand, if you have worked for companies who are unknown in USA market than you might not be able to leverage upon your experience.
4. Time of Entry – This is also important as to when you enter the USA job market. Whether it is a hiring season or not. Whether supply is adequate or there’s a high demand.
5. First Impression – The most important factor, if you were able to market yourself effectively in your interview/test/meeting there’s a bright chance that you can tip the scale in your favor.