Thought Garage

Dear readers,

Many of you have been anxiously waiting for the confirmation that your application has been selected in lottery and you are on your way to getting h1b approved. There were lots of delays and took lot more time than expected for USCIS to process all applications. Last week USCIS announced that it had sent its final notice to applicants and everyone must receive a notification (either a receipt number or rejected application).

I received numerous emails that they haven’t yet received anything yet. I am pretty sure your employer must have received something by this time now, and they must be thinking of a better time to convey the message to you.

For those who have received a receipt number, you can check the processing times of the center that is processing your application to get a better estimate of how much time it may take to get the final approval. Now that you received the confirmation that your application is selected in the lottery, do not worry much about the delay in approval. I know it is easy to say, but most likely your application will be approved. Good luck.

Some of you are still reading the month old posts and thinking that I did not have any updates for a long time. Infact, I had regular updates on the site. One reason for the confusion is that you are still reading an old post, while I write new posts whenever I have an update. Never mind, I will try to leave a link on those most read posts that there is a new update available.

PBS Show on rising Indian middle class, features a fresh look at what is changing in India and how the mind set is inclined towards ‘buy what you want’ rather than traditional ‘buy what you need’.  You can watch the video of the program online.

The global middle class is expected to swell by more than 1 billion people over the next decade, with the biggest increases in China and India. While millions are being lifted out of poverty as a result, the booming middle class is also consuming more global resources. As a result, prices for everything from steel to gasoline to food are soaring.

India Rising – Globalization and the Middle Class . NOW on PBS

Yet another impressive and very well resonating speech on Father’s day by Obama.

I loved the way he attempted some of the most sensitive topics and rejected the ‘common wisdom’ : what it takes to be a father, setting high expectations for ourselves and for kids, the craze about graduation of everything and doing our own job to get where you want to go and the mantra of obama, where change should start.

Good news !!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that beginning on June 30, 2008 it will issue Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) valid for two years.
The new two-year EAD is only available to individuals who have filed to become a lawful permanent resident (LPR) using a Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, and filed for employment authorization under Section 274.a.12(c)(9) of Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations (8 C.F.R.) but are unable to become an LPR because an immigrant visa number is not currently available.

USCIS to Issue Two-Year Employment Authorization Documents

Since USCIS does the determination after you file (based on latest visa bulletin), it appears that it is not required to pay double the fee of one year EAD.

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Quite interesting idea, to convert an existing Corolla into a hybrid. This for sure will save a lot of resources than building a new one from scratch. Apply the same idea to all cars, you don’t have to buy a new car to become eco-friendly. Just buy the conversion kit and get it installed. Cool !!

Converting standard Corollas into electric cars
Sähköautot–Nyt! (Finnish for Electric Cars–Now!) is taking an innovative approach to getting more electric-powered vehicles on the road. The Finnish not-for-profit group, which calls itself an open-source electric vehicle community, wants to sign up 500 or more buyers for its first proposed model. Instead of building a car from scratch, they’ll retro-fit existing Toyota Corollas. At a volume of 500+, the cost of acquiring and converting used, petrol-powered vehicles to run on rechargeable lithium batteries will be on par with the cost of purchasing a standard internal combustion engine Corolla off the lot, and saves the energy needed to manufacture a new hybrid or electric car.

At this point, this is only available in Finland. But its so cool idea, it might catch up everywhere.

(Picture Credit : Corolla on left by misocrazy at  Flickr and Prius on right by Beige Alert at Flickr)