The Law at Work: Foreign trainer qualifies as temporary business visitor under uncapped visa program
The H-1B program (capped at 65,000 visas per fiscal year) allows U.S. companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent. B-1 visas, which have no numerical cap and are less expensive to obtain, may be issued to a nonimmigrant entering the U.S. temporarily for business activities other than gainful employment in this country, such as for conferences.
In his The Law at Work column in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Shareholder Dan Eaton examines a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging Apple abused the B-1 program, depriving the federal government of the higher H-1B fees, when it paid India-based outsourcing company Infosys Technologies to have two Infosys Indian trainers with B-1 visas provide live software training to Apple employees in California. The court ruled that the use of B-1 visa holders for this purpose was permissible.
Click here to view the full article.