WASHINGTON – Indians face a big setback with the new US H-1B Visa Policy.

The process of filing petitions for H-1B, considered the most sought-afterwork visa among highly skilled Indian professionals, begins tomorrow amidstunprecedented scrutiny by the Trump Administration.

A strong indication has come from the US Citizenship and ImmigrationServices or USCIS, the federal agency which is responsible to process allH-1B visas, that there will be zero tolerance by it for even the minutestof errors.

Reports suggest that immigration attorneys this time expect a much highrate of rejection.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employforeign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical ortechnical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens ofthousands of employees each year from countries like India.

The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscalyear as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed onbehalf of beneficiaries with a US master’s degree or higher are exempt fromthe cap.

Days ahead of the start of the H-1B visa application process for the fiscalyear 2019, beginning October 1 this year; USCIS warned that all duplicateapplications would be subject to rejection.

In previous years filing of duplicate petitions, by companies, so thatapplicants could have greater chance in getting through the lottery hadbecome a normal practice.