H1B visa

Posted this on Suzanne's thread but copied and pasted here as well to point out how hard getting into an H1B visa is that some agencies are pushing.

The H1B cap was reached months ago (the H1B cap was reached even before the cap or quota for nurses and PTs was reached in more or less Nov. 1, 2006) and they are only going to start accepting petitions for fiscal year 2008 (Oct. 2008) starting April 2 but will not reject any mail that were received on the weekend before that, w/c is March 31 and April 1. The exemption is only to those 2 dates. Also, the previous cap (for fiscal year 2007) was reached in just a couple of months. Less than 2 months even.

Pls. refer to the chart below:
http://uscomputerjobs.sulekha.com/bl...-days-only.htm

As you can see filing for H1B is only accepted every 1st of April of the year, w/c is 6 mos before the fiscal year it is intended for (every Oct of the year) and it only lasts for more or less just 2 mos and the whole 65,000 visas are gone just like that. Once a quota is reached no more petitions can be accepted and are rejected and those rejected would have to file for the next filing date. April 1 of next year or April 2, or 3 if April 1 falls on weekends or holidays.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/H1B_Update.pdf


*Notice that uscis is anticipating that for this year, the 65,000 visa cap may be reached on the 1st 1-2 days of filing (April 2 and 3) that is why they will be selecting petitions randomly if that indeed happens and all petitions not selected and given slots are rejected. Next filing will be April 1, next year (2008).