H-1B visas are employment visas that are for specialty occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or specialized training as a minimum requirement for entry into the field. Obvious examples are accountant, civil engineer, attorney, architect—all these fields require at least a bachelor’s degree to enter these occupations, less obvious examples would be fashion models or ex-military personnel with unique skills and experience.

A US based business will petition employees for these visas and there is a limit of available H-1B visas annually.

In recent years, because of the limited number of these visas, a lottery is held to see which petitions will be allowed to progress. The visas are granted for an initial period of three years and can be extended for an additional three years.

The greatest benefit to an H1-B Visa is that the H-1B visa can, in certain circumstances, result in a Green Card, which in turn can lead to US citizenship.