H1B Visa Squeeze

After the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services received 123,480 eligible applications on the first day applications for the new fiscal year opened, it used a computer lottery to select 58,200 applicants for consideration for the available slots. Those rejected by the computer will not be evaluated on their merits.

The cap for a separate pool of 20,000 H-1B visas for candidates with master’s degrees from U.S. universities was also reached on April 30.

Bills are currently pending in Congress to increase the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and even to lift them altogether.