From Times Of India- Chances of getting a H1-B Visa to the US - 50/50
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Your chance of getting H1-B visa: 50-50
16 Apr 2007, 0150 hrs IST,CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA,TNN
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WASHINGTON: Chances for H1-B visa this year for aspiring applicants:
about 50%. US immigration authorities announced this week that they
had conducted a computerised lottery to select 65,000 H1-B petitions
from among the 123,480 that had passed a preliminary check for
eligibility.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had to
resort to the lottery for the first time since
the H1-B guest worker visa programme began because the annual 65,000
ceiling for the visas was exceeded by April 2, the very first day of
the application period. In all, the agency said it received 133,000
packages with visa petitions on April 2 and 3, more than double the
quote for fiscal 2008 that are made available starting October 1.
Typically, skilled workers from India or professionals of Indian-
origin snag 50% of the H1-B visas. Anecdotal reports suggest that this
year too Indian IT firms such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro have sent in
large number of H1-B petitions on behalf of their workers to enable
them fulfil work-site contracts in the US. The limited number of visas
this year means more than half the applicants, many of them individual
skilled professionals who may have got jobs in the US, have a 50-50
chance of securing it. Indians who graduate from US schools in June
this year will also be in limbo because even their special quota of
20,000 (in addition to the 65,000) is expected to be exhausted by
then. ''Many members of the class of 2007 effectively received
deportation orders and lost their post-graduation jobs last week,''
the student newspaper 'Harvard Crimson' noted in an editorial.
There is much heartburn in the US high tech industry over the H1-B
issue. Companies such as Microsoft and Intel say the limited quota is
putting a crimp on attracting worldwide talent need to keep the
industry moving forward. But American worker groups say its not the
Microsofts and Intels that are making best use of the H1-Bs, but
Indian companies which send temporary workers for on site evaluation
of projects which are eventually moved back to India for low-cost
fixes.