H1-B Visa 2008: Another lottery

April 01, 2008 is fast approaching. Besides being April Fool’s day, it will be a day that thousands in the US and in other countries are awaiting. This is the first day that H1-B applications will be accepted for Fiscal Year ’09…basically for employment starting October 01, 2008.

If it is going to be anything like last year, there is a strong possibility of the visa quota filling up on day one itself. Infact the USCIS has officially said that there will be a lottery. Varying estimates are out for the number of applications that are going to be received. Some say 200K and others upto half a million.

A small town in rural Vermont, St. Albans; is going to be inundated with FEDEX and UPS and USPS trucks bringing thousands of packages on Tuesday morning. It should be an interesting sight for a small town to see so many packages holdin

It is no secret that the system is broken. Someone like Bill Gates himself has gone out and petitioned the Congress and the Senate to do something as otherwise, American corporations are shipping these jobs abroad, as they have no choice.

In an election year, with immigration, especially the illegal kind; being a hot topic, nothing is going to be done. No politician worth his/her salt will provide more than lip service.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out this year. Stay tuned here for further immigration commentary.

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