She began her new job on October 18, 1993. The H-1B nonimmigrant visa is by far the most common visa used by U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in what would generally be described as 'professional' positions. However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service no longer refers to these positions as professional. Take, for example, computer programming. There are many schools in the United States which teach computer programming in one year or less.
Some computer programmers are even self-taught.
Therefore, the occupation of computer programmer might not qualify for an H-1B visa. The INS recently denied an H-1B visa petition filed on behalf of a photographer on the grounds that the position did not qualify as a specialty occupation. There are also many seemingly inappreciable distinctions as to which occupations qualify. A crucial step in preparing a petition for an H-1B visa is properly evaluating the suitability of the position and describing the job duties to meet the standards of the INS for a specialty occupation. In previous issues of this newsletter we have reported the INS plan to replace all green cards issued between 1952 and 1977.