It appears as if a rapid turnaround has taken place from the days when American companies and H-1B visa advocacy groups were clamoring for bigger quotas. Today, some 20,000 H- IB visas are going a-begging, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
"Believe it or not, it's now September of 2009 and there are still approximately 20,000 H-1B visa slots available for the H-1B cap subject category for fiscal year 2010, which begins October 1, 2009," Douglas M. Lightman, of the Lightman Law Firm LLC in New York noted in his eZine article.
Titled, "September 2009 H1b Visa Update - How Many H- IB Visas Are Still Available This Year?" the article said the "subject" category has a cap of 65,000, which means some 45,000 spots have been filled.
Where Indians were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to apply, this availability is a reflection partly of the fate suffered by past H- IB visa-holders from India, the relatively better showing of the Indian economy in a recession, and, concomitantly, the poor showing of the U.S. economy that has thrown millions out of jobs – H-1B visa-holders perhaps sooner than others.
Though the "subject" category has many vacancies, however, the advanced degree category of 20,000 has been filled. This could be an opportunity for those still wanting to apply, and who may have an advanced degree, because they can now submit their H-1B applications under the "subject" category.
Another sign that things are either not going so great for U.S. companies, or that they have begun employing local talent, is the fact that USCIS has not yet held a lottery, something it has done over the past two years because it receives way more H-1B applications than it can accommodate. The USCIS starts accepting H-1B applications from April 1, for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, allotting 65,000 to the "subject" category and 20,000 to the advanced degree cap. In 2007, more than 150,000 H-IB applications were filed, and in 2008 almost 200,000.
In stark contrast, this year, only 43,000 petitions were received by April 17 for the subject category and only 20,000 for the advanced degree category and a couple of thousand more after that. "This is an alarmingly low amount," Lightman said. Going by the application updates of USCIS, the number of applicants has hardly risen and, in fact, has fluctuated downward at least once between April and August.
"Unless the economy miraculously picks up in September/October, there is likely to be very little movement over the next few months," Lightman contends.
Those still interested could apply after Oct. 1, and he says this might be the right time to take advantage.
