H1B1 Visa (Singaporeans)

The H-1B1 is the specialty occupation category created by the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement for citizens of Singapore. Two separate time limits apply to it, and they are easily confused: how long the visa itself can be used, and how long the holder may stay in the United States on each admission.

Work experience can substitute for a college degree in an H-1B1 case, and the familiar three-for-one arithmetic does apply. Two things about that answer are worth knowing before relying on it. The rule reaches H-1B1 by a longer route than the statute suggests, and the arithmetic is one component of a larger test rather than a formula that settles the question by itself.

No. Permanent residence in Singapore, however long held, does not open the H-1B1 to a principal applicant. Citizenship is the test, and the reason is worth following because it explains why there is no room for argument on the point.

Yes. A national of Singapore, currently admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant in a category eligible to change nonimmigrant status, may apply to change to H-1B1 nonimmigrant status. Note that the applicant must be in the U.S. in a nonimmigrant category which is eligible to change nonimmigrant status, of course.

The H-1B1 is a specialty occupation classification created by the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement and written into the immigration statute at INA 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b1). It is a close cousin of the H-1B, but it works differently in three ways that shape everything below: it is applied for directly at a U.S. consular post rather than through a USCIS petition, it draws on its own annual allocation of 5,400 numbers set aside for Singaporean nationals, and it is granted one year at a time. Qualifying is a joint exercise.

Yes. Singaporeans are still eligible to apply for traditional H-1b visas. Singaporeans are NOT required to apply for H-1B1. Each individual Singaporean can decide which visa (traditional H-1b or H-1B1) is best for his or her personal situation.

If you are a Singaporean citizen with a U.S. job offer in a professional field, you have, in a sense, already won the lottery. Citizens of most other countries must compete in the annual H-1B lottery for a chance at a work visa. Singaporeans have their own classification — the H-1B1 — with its own annual allocation, no lottery at all, and a limit that in practice has not been the obstacle the H-1B cap is.