Within a space of just five days, the US’s 85,000 H-1B work visas are practically gone and the authorities have announced that they will not receive any more applications for fiscal year 2014, beginning October this year.
Having received a much larger number of petitions than the Congressionally-mandated cap, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will now use the lottery process to determine the lucky ones who will receive this highly coveted visa.
As expected, the USCIS came up with the announcement on Friday that it would not entertain any more petitions for the upcoming fiscal year.
This is the first time since 2008 that the agency has seen such a phenomenal rush, prompting it to use a lottery to allot the H-1B visas that entitle one to work in the US for six years. Of the 85,000 visas for specialty occupations, predominantly tech jobs, a total of 20,000 are reserved exclusively for those graduating with master’s degree or higher from American universities.
With the whole year’s quota exhausted in just five days, the American tech industry, which predominantly uses theses visas to bring Indian and other foreign professionals to work in the US, is expected to renew its demand to at least double the H-1B visa cap.