An H-1b visa is made available by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to U.S. companies seeking to hire foreign nationals who satisfy the criteria of the needs of their organization. The major benefit the H-1b visa provides to US companies is that it amplifies their pool of candidates. U.S. companies are no longer tied to just searching for candidates in the U.S. Today, if a U.S. company finds a qualified candidate for an available employment position in another country, it is able to hire him or her. The advantage that the H-1b visa provides greatly impacts the potential growth and efficiency of the company that takes advantage of it.

The H-1b visa is an extremely beneficial visa for the foreign professional as well. It allows the foreign professional permission to legally enter and work in the United States and qualifies him or her to ultimately obtain a Green Card. To qualify as a professional for the H-1b visa, the applicant must have a Bachelors degree from a US university or the equivalent from a foreign institution. However, many people are unaware that persons that do not have a Bachelors degree from a US university or from a foreign institution can still qualify by using their years of experience in the field as an equivalent to education.

Once the foreign professional obtains an H-1b visa, he or she is allowed to enter and legally work for a US company for a maximum of 6 years. However, the 6 years can be extended indefinitely by obtaining a Green Card. To obtain a Green Card, the H-1b visa holder must obtain an approved Labor Certification from the Department of Labor while he or she is working with the H-1b US company. The U.S. company applies for the Labor Certification on the foreign professional's behalf. Upon receiving the approved Labor Certification, the H-1b visa holder may then apply for the Green Card within a few months to a few years depending on his or her education and experience history.

One thing that is very important to understand and that is commonly misinterpreted is that the professional must maintain his or her legal status while in the US to be eligible for a Green Card. In other words, the professional who enters the US with an H-1b visa must maintain his or her H-1b visa status or change to another visa if necessary during the whole waiting period to apply for the Green Card. Failing to maintain legal status while in the U.S. makes the approved Labor Certification worthless because the person will not be able to obtain a Green Card.

US companies benefit from the H-1b visa process as well in that they can sometimes employ their preferred foreign candidate within a few months. If the foreign professional that the US company seeks to employ is currently in the US with any other type of visa, he or she is eligible to apply for the H-1b visa from inside of the US. This means that the person does not have to leave the US to return to his or her native country for an interview. This saves both the company and the applicant lots of time and money. In addition, a great benefit to the foreign professional is that as an H-1b visa holder he or she is able to bring into or keep all immediate family members in the US to live legally as H-4 dependents. However, the family members are not permitted to work unless they also obtain an employment visa.

Still another advantage of the H-1b visa is seen when the H-1b visa holder gets fired or laid off. If an H-1b visa holder loses his or her job, the visa holder must immediately find other US employment in the same field of work from a company willing to sponsor him or her. The new employer must then file a complete H-1b visa application package with the USCIS on the employee's behalf. Be aware that this process must be done immediately after finding a company that will hire the foreign professional because he or she is not able to legally work in the new company until the new H-1b visa is obtained.

It is extremely important to understand that the original H-1b visa is not valid to work with any other employer other than the one which originally petitioned the foreign professional. Having worked for another US company while still having the original H-1b visa disqualifies the foreign professional from obtaining a Green Card. Many people are unaware of this fact and run to apply for a Green Card after receiving an approved Labor Certification. These people come to find out they do not qualify for the Green Card after they have needlessly wasted several years and thousands of dollars during their wait.

These visas benefit both US companies and foreign nationals. However, they go fast. The USCIS only allots 66,000 per year. The first day the USCIS accepts H-1b visa applications is April 1, 2008. Last year, the USCIS received more than 66,000 H-1b visa applications by noon the very first day it began accepting them. The USCIS was forced to use a lottery system to select which applications would even be processed! This is a crystal clear indication of just how beneficial the H-1b visa really is.

Authored by Sonia M. Munoz, Esq. Attorney and President of Immigration Legal Counsel, LLC, a Law Firm located in South Florida specialized in Business Immigration Law. For her CV and more information about her previous experience, seminars, and other published articles visit http://www.ilclawfirm.com