August 2001 - H1B News
Status of approved H1B workers NOT called by H1B sponsoring companies.

We have received many inquiries from our users as their H1B had been approved and either they didn't get the H1B approval papers or they received the stamping and NOT yet called by the employers. We would like to provide general guidance to those users. (Note - This cannot be considered as a legal advice )

1. Your H1B approval is valid any time during your approval validity. For most of the cases, this will be 3 years or 2 years. ( This is applicable only if your H1B approval has NOT been cancelled by your employer )



2. You can get H1B stamping any time during your approval validity.



3. If you get the H1B stamping you can come to US any time during your VISA validity, PROVIDED your employer had asked you to come and join with them.



4. Your H1B approval is valid only for the employer who sponsored your H1B. You can transfer your H1B PROVIDED you are in US with valid employment with your current H1B sponsoring company.

H1B Approval count

As of July-25-2001, approximately 138,000 H1B applications have been approved and 39,000 applications are in process.

The H1B quota for fiscal year 2001 (Oct-1-2000 to Sep-30-2001) is 195,000 which is 80,000 more from last fiscal year.

An Analysis about the number of approvals

Eventhough there is huge job cuts for H1B employees, the number of applications filed for this fiscal year was more. Also, the expected number of H1B approval for this year will be around 180,000 which will be 65,000 more than last year.

Many H1B sponsoring companies are in need of tech workers, but due to economy downturn, the expected projects and developments are withheld or stopped. As soon as the economy improves, there will be a huge demand for skilled workers. Also, the companies are expecting the market to improve by 4th quarter of this year or 1st quarter of next year.