H1/H1b vs L1 vs B1 vs H2 US-Non immigrant work visas

H1, L1, B1,H2 are different types of non immigrant work visas US offers to all the foreign nationals willing to work on the Us soil.

H1: H1/H1b visa is issued to skilled professionals like engineers, doctors etc. These skilled professionals category does not include management professionals and executives. The purpose of H1 visa is to bring in the foreign nationals into the US when there is no US national that fits the eligibility criteria. The usual time line of processing H1 visa varies from 3 months to 5 months for regular and 15 days for premium. There is a limit on the total number of visas issued in a year. This limit is otherwise called as CAP. Total duration allowed is 6 years.

L1: L1 visas L1A or L1b visas are issued to foreign nationals whose home company has a requirement of a specialist or executive in its US branch for steering the company's branch in US. L1b processing timeline lies between 15 days to 4 months approximately. There is no limit on the number of L1 visas issued in a year. Total duration allowed is 6 years.

B1: A B1 business visa is issued to foreign business executives who comes for a short stay in US on business purposes. The maximum stay on a b1 is 3 months. And the validity can be up to 10 years.

H2: H2a or H2b visas are issued to blue collar jobs and seasonal agriculturalists.

H1B visa 2014 cap count updates-lottery?

As for h1b 2014 is considered, there has been a confusion regarding the availability of the cap. Before we analyse any further on this, let us discuss what a cap is.

What is a H1B-Cap?

Cap or quota is the total number of h1b  visas that are allotted in an year to the foreign nationals intending to work in US in the specialty occupations.

Total quota available =65000 regular + 20000 ADE.

ADE refers to Advanced Degree Exemption.

This quota last yr for the 2013 cap is consumed with in 2 months. June 11th 2012 is the last date the cap was seen open. April 1 being the cap open date. This drastic decrease in the time the cap is open for casts a doubt on the cap-2014. People started wondering whether the lottery days might have come again. Frankly, this might rush all the companies and corporations speed up their process and applications even earlier than the next year. But be assured at least for now, that there won't be a lottery unless your petition falls on the cap close date.

So hurry up and finish your petitions as soon as possible and do let us know if you have any queries regarding the same in the comments section. We will try to address with in 24 hrs.