U.S. Immigration [USCIS] changes selection process for H-1B visas

An interesting development in the H-1B lottery this year that you may not know about.

As you may know the number of applications for an H-1B visa far exceeds the cap by the first submission day, April 1.

The cap is currently 65,000 H-1B visas plus 20,000 for foreign citizens with a graduate degree from a U.S. university.

However, up until this year the USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] policy was to have a random drawing from the day’s receipts that are needed to meet the cap.

Typically, this meant that the USCIS used two days’ worth of H-1B applications.

However, this year, according to Greg Siskind of Siskind Susser Bland, an immigration firm, the USCIS for 2009 will randomly select winners from applications received on the first five days.

I am not a statistician but I think this could create a drastic change in who is awarded H-1B visas.

Up until now, as I said in a blog a few weeks ago, eight of the top ten companies that were awarded H-1B visas for their workers were Indian outsourcing companies.

I assume they received the lion’s share of the visas because they were able to flood the USCIS with the most applications in the

shortest time.

Now, if the USCIS uses five days’ worth of applications, I think it will open up the H-1B visas to more companies. Companies that are not training H-1B visa folks here and then sending them back home to do the work. At least now they will be spending pay checks and shopping in the States. That’s better than getting the visa and then disappearing.

For more I suggest you go to the VisaLaw site. This week it is chock full of H-1B information.