H1B VISAS One reason many Japanese apply for H1B visas is because the company they will work for does not qualify for E1 or E2 status. This happens when the company is not at least 50% Japanese owned (green card holders are treated like Americans for this test) or if the company is engaged in trade but less than 50% of the trade is between Japan and the U.S. Representative offices of Japanese companies are also barred from E1/E2 classification.
All an applicant needs is a relevant university degree and the company must prove the job requires that university degree. Since most Japanese are well-educated, they often turn to this visa if they don’t have several years of experience with the parent company in Japan because work experience is not required for the H1B; only a university degree. Even if someone doesn’t have the relevant degree, it is sometimes possible to qualify by showing experience in the specialty occupation where the missing academic skills were learned at the previous job.
Although language skills are often useful to an employer, they cannot be the basis for the H1B petition because the U.S. government takes the position that languages are often learned in other ways than by studying them at a university.
Until recently, many qualified U.S. applicants were unable to get H1B visas because the U.S. government only issues about 65,000 H1B visas per year. During the last few years, because of the weak economy and reduced hiring, most Japanese who applied for these visas (especially during the first 10 months of the application period), were able to secure H1B visas without having to enter into a “visa lottery”.
H1B VISAS One reason many Japanese apply for H1B visas is because the company they will work for does not qualify for E1 or E2 status. This happens when the company is not at least 50% Japanese owned (green card holders are treated like Americans for this test) or if the company is engaged in trade but less than 50% of the trade is between Japan and the U.S. Representative offices of Japanese companies are also barred from E1/E2 classification.
All an applicant needs is a relevant university degree and the company must prove the job requires that university degree. Since most Japanese are well-educated, they often turn to this visa if they don’t have several years of experience with the parent company in Japan because work experience is not required for the H1B; only a university degree. Even if someone doesn’t have the relevant degree, it is sometimes possible to qualify by showing experience in the specialty occupation where the missing academic skills were learned at the previous job.
Although language skills are often useful to an employer, they cannot be the basis for the H1B petition because the U.S. government takes the position that languages are often learned in other ways than by studying them at a university.
Until recently, many qualified U.S. applicants were unable to get H1B visas because the U.S. government only issues about 65,000 H1B visas per year. During the last few years, because of the weak economy and reduced hiring, most Japanese who applied for these visas (especially during the first 10 months of the application period), were able to secure H1B visas without having to enter into a “visa lottery”.