US - H1B Visa Shortage

Everyone know about the recession happening in US. As a matter of fact more than 5,000 US residents lost their jobs. But still we the Indians fly across the nations to prove our relationship with the so called clients.

Though its a boom for IT industry in INdia, its a threat to the citizens of US who own the country. And still its a question whats going to happen ?

Coming to the big picture… Filing of H1B visa is going to start from April 1(for entry into the US from October 1), and IT companies are already scurrying to put together all documents in the expectation that the entire H-1B quota will be exhausted on the very first day, as it did last year.

For the 58,200 H-1B quota, the US received 1,20,000 petitions on April 2, 2007, the first day the quota opened last year.

It was widely expected last year that the US Congress would increase the H-1B quota to over a lakh. But that didn’t happen

Several immigration bills have failed in the US and since election fever is going on, Bush wont take this matter up.

To overcome this problem, domestic companies are currently busy checking out alternative options like L visa (meant for intra-company transfer), J visa (for specialists/domain experts) and B (business) category visas

Note: Indians were 34,000 of the 58,200 H-1B recipients last year