Classic Project Life Cycle
Uncategorized
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2008, New york Times
Immigration officials said they had received enough applications for three-year visas for high-skilled immigrants, known as H-1B, to meet the quota of 65,000 for the year beginning Oct. 1. Officials at Citizenship and Immigration Services said they closed the application period, which started April 1, after the pre-set minimum of five days. The agency also received enough applications to surpass an annual quota of 20,000 work visas for immigrants with a master’s degree or higher from an American college or university. The agency has not finished counting the applications, but they are expected to greatly exceed the quotas. In coming days, officials said, the agency will run an electronic lottery to select immigrants who will receive visas, in a process that prompted calls from technology businesses to raise the visa limits.
The same New York Times newspaper has reported in 2007 that about 300,000 applications were filed by skilled workers and professionals from July 1 to August 17, 2007. This figure was extremely high compared to a monthly average of 54,700 applications filed before July.The dramatic increase was due to the increase of filing fees effective July 30 of that same year and the reversal of the USCIS July 2 memo rejecting adjustment of status applications whose priority dates were current under the July 2007 visa bulletin.
While the adjustment applicants may be entitled to interim benefits such as employment authorization, the high volume of applications will certainly prolong their wait time for their green cards due to the annual limits imposed by law on the preference categories.
On the brighter side, Australia and Canada or even New Zealand are other alternatives for immigration.
