H1B1 visa: the route that lets Chilean professionals work in the United States

Working in the United States remains a common goal among Chilean professionals. According to the Publimetro report by Angélica Baeza, a little-known mechanism reserves 1,400 annual slots exclusively for Chilean citizens.

The benefit comes from the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries and allows a US company to hire a Chilean professional directly. The report stresses, however, that take-up remains low, and points to a concrete cause: lack of awareness among both applicants and employers.

A regional competitive edge

According to Visability CEO Pablo Navarrete, Chile holds a competitive advantage that is unique in the region thanks to its trade agreement with the United States, which allocates 1,400 H1B1 visas a year exclusively to Chilean professionals.

Current demand, as the article reports, is concentrated in four sectors:

• Technology
• Healthcare
• Finance
• Education

Three concrete cases

The Publimetro report draws on the stories of Chileans who have already been through the process, showing the visa is not reserved for a single professional profile:

• Jonathan Manríquez, tennis instructor in Miami.
• David Vega, machinery engineer.
• Nicolás Quezada, automotive mechanic.

These are profiles quite different from one another, and quite different from the software-engineer stereotype usually associated with US work visas.

What the H-1B1 requires

• Chilean citizenship.
• A professional degree or its equivalent in experience.
• A US job offer in a specialty occupation related to that background.
• The employer certifying the prevailing wage with the Department of Labor.

Unlike the traditional H-1B, the H-1B1 is processed through consular channels, with no prior employer petition to USCIS, and does not take part in the annual selection.

How Visability supports the process

• Initial eligibility assessment.
• Finding and validating the US job offer.
• Preparation of academic and employment documentation.
• Consular interview coaching.

Read the full report at Publimetro: Visa H1B1: el mecanismo que permite a profesionales chilenos trabajar en Estados Unidos