Thought Garage

There has been no update since the 9th April 2009 news release by USCIS indicating whether H1B cap limits have been reached for FY 2010 yet or not.

As per 9th April notification, about 42000 applications have been received. So it appears, the cap limits haven’t been reached yet, even after almost 19 days in April.

Last two years (in 2007(H1B2008) and 2008(H1B 2009)) quota has been reached on day 1 itself. This is quite expected. As I said earlier, I would be surprised even if the cap limits are reached. If any firm is planning to apply, they would have applied on day 1 itself knowing what happened in the last two years. If they hadn’t applied yet, most probably they won’t.

May be once Economy picks up or knowing the news that this year it won’t be a lottery, some firms may still look at H1B option. But otherwise, I guess, this is it.

This is the most trickiest and yet the most popular question asked on this blog and in direct emails to me, Will the H1B rush we have witnessed in 2007 and 2008 repeat this year in 2009 as well? The official H1B year 2010 starts from October 1st of 2009. USCIS will accept petitions starting from 1st of April, 2009. Please visit USCIS website for accurate and timely information. Now the answer to that question, without any doubt, a

Big NO.

That’s right. As far as I understand, its a BIG NO. Its my gut feeling and I could be totally wrong. It is very unlikely that USCIS will run in to lottery this year. I will be surprised if even the cap is reached this year.

Enough Engineers in US and still searching.

Well there are many reasons for it. First of all, there are more than enough IT consultants and Engineers already in US still searching for a job as I write this post. So, I don’t think there is any reason for companies to look to hire somebody on H1B from a different country and bring them to US.

Now, that is true in case of American firms. What about US based consulting arms of non-American firms? These firms like Infosys, Wipro may still file for the bigger chunks of H1B petitions this year, though those numbers will be lot lower compared to 2008 and 2007.

Very unlikely that H1Bs will be filed/hired by most financial companies.

Firms that received TARP (stimulus/bailout money) from US government are less likely to engage H1B work force due to new restrictions on these firms. In simple terms, if a company that received TARP money and if it laid off in last three months or will lay off next three months an American worker (includes Citizens as well as Permanent Residents), it can not hire a H1B or file petition for a H1B. This rule effectively starts from 17th Feb 2009 and will be effective for two years. Please visit USCIS website for more and accurate information on this. I would assume that many other firms that may not have received TARP money will also follow the suit and try to hire skilled engineers that are already available in the market before thinking about H1B choice.

Dearth of Jobs/Consulting offers in Recession Market

This is the most direct reason. Job Market is badly hit with lay offs and job prospects are quite bleak in almost every functional area. With so much uncertainty in the job market, most consulting firms as well as individuals may not risk trying this route.

Some more reasons I heard recently include ..

• rumors that Consulates are rejecting work Visas owing to reasons similar to above and
• rumors that most H1B body shopping firms are under extensive scrutiny and investigation for fraud

This is completely based on my own limited understanding of the whole process and market conditions. Please do not use this opinion for making any sort of decisions.

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.

USCIS announced today that  it conducted the two phased Random Selection process to pick H1B petitions. If you have filed for premium processing, you should hear a decision in 2 weeks from today. If not, you should hear no later than 2nd June.

As previously mentioned, USCIS mentioned that it will short list little more than mandated cap of 65000 + 20000. Read more about  the waiting list in USCIS original update.

USCIS conducted two random selections, first on petitions qualifying for the 20,000 “master’s or higher degree” (advanced degree) exemption, and second on the remaining advance degree petitions together with the general H-1B pool of petitions, for the 65,000 cap. 

USCIS Update (26KB PDF)

USCIS Runs Random Selection Process For H-1B Petitions

USCIS announced today that it received about 163,000 H1B petitions for year 2009 that starts from 1st of October 2008. About 31,200 of those are for Advanced Degree category.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced a preliminary number of nearly 163,000 H-1B petitions received during the filing period ending on April 7, 2008. More than 31,200 of those petitions were for the advanced degree category. USCIS expects next week it will conduct the computer-generated random selection process, beginning with the selection of the 20,000 petitions under the advanced degree exemption. Those petitions not selected under the advanced degree category will join the random selection process for the cap-subject 65,000 limit.

Read the announcement here. (PDF)

If you have filed under Advanced Degree Exemption (20,000 Visas), You have much better chance of receiving a H1B:

For 20,000 limit for Advanced degree holders, if cap is reached within the first five days, random selection will be carried out in two phases. Lottery will be first conducted ONLY for advanced degree holders first (for 20000 applications). And include all those that are not selected in the lottery for the 65000 cap along with regular applicants. Read the updated Rules.

If you are a student on F1:

If you are a student on F-1, you may be able to work for 29 months on OPT before you get employment under H1B. That may ease the pressure on H1B just a bit and give a much better chance for Students in Maths/Engg/Technology streams in US Universities to take employment in US. Read more.

Now its official, it will be a lottery

Now its totally official looking at the numbers that Random Selection or Lottery will be used to pick petitions that will be accepted. In general, every petition has about 50% chance of getting accepted.  Good Luck to you all.

USCIS will approve a little more than 65000 + 20000

At least a few thousand more applicants, in addition to the Congressional mandated cap of 85,000, in both categories, would receive approval notifications on their petition for H-1B visa.

A USCIS spokesperson told NDTV.Com that the number of petitions approved by the agency would be much more than the Congressional mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B visas in both the categories.  This, the official said, would give the State Department, which issues the visas through the American embassies and consulates worldwide, enough cushion to ”reject or deny” H-1B visas to those applicants who are found to be ineligible or those whose paper work are deficient.

”We try to accept enough petitions, so that the State Department would have no problem in filling up the 65,000 seats plus 20,000 for those having Masters in the US. By doing so, we try to make sure that all the visas would be issued,” the official said. ( Source : NDTV)