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USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2016
- coppolaemilio 11y agoCan someone translate to human language?
- rememberlenny 11y agoIf I understand one part correctly, they opened the lottery on April 1st and filled up the entire year's allotment 6 days later.
- DrJokepu 11y ago4 times the yearly allotment.
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- alex_h 11y agoThey received 233,000 applications for 85,000 work visas, and have randomly selected 85,000 of them. Everyone else can try next year.
- hurrycane 11y agoEach year there are 20k work visas for people who graduated MSc in the US and 65k work visas for the rest of world. That means if you got an offer to work from a startup or a big tech firm there are about 23% changes you'll get the visa.
- davidw 11y agoThere are more people asking for a spot than spots available. There are 65,000 spots available. If that sounds like a random and arbitrary number, you're right, that's exactly what it is.
- diablosnuevos 11y agoEvery year, this branch of the U.S. government gives out so many of these work visas to qualified applicants. This is one of the most common ways many foreign developers are able to apply and work for a U.S. company, by being "sponsored" by their company. Well, they've run out of spots for 2016.
- nikhizzle 11y agoH1-B visas are used by US businesses wanting to hire non-american employees. There is an annual cap set on the number of visas (65,000 for people with bachelor's degrees, and an additional 20,000 for those with master's/phd). This year there was an even more massive oversubscription, and the visas were allotted by lottery. Certain subcategories of visa are not subject to the cap (eg. those requested by non-profit research institutions and universities, including government labs.)
- hibikir 11y agoIn the good old days, it wasn't so easy to hire a foreigner that studied computer science in an American university: They'd get an automatic 1 year practical training visa, and if after a few months you saw that they were a good hire, you'd sponsor them for an H1-B, and eventually a green card. That's how many senior people that were born overseas got to their spots. Now, thanks to low quotas, and some rather unsavory consultancy companies, the H1-B program has now become useless for this purpose, as you have less than a 50/50 chance of getting an H1-B approved, just due to quotas. So while an honest company that wants to hire a good developer will not be OK with the delays and the low percentages of hiring someone in those conditions, a mill that interviews thousands of people and will place them in third party customers as consultants will gladly just keep flooding the market with applicants that probably will not get anywhere. TL;DR The H1-B program used to be defensible, and maybe useful. The way it works now, it only works for companies who abuse it.
- ta82828 11y agoit wasn't so easy I think you meant "it wasn't so hard"
- CodeSheikh 11y agoIn simple words, US Immigration system is quite messed up.
- dsl 11y agoRather it is companies gaming the system to get below market labor, and it has a huge negative impact on the entire market.
- abhididdigi 11y agoOK and why is this the top of HN? Because of the number of applications? The number of applications is slightly higher than last year, but still I fail to understand why it is on the top, because this same thing was happening for the last 4+ years. My application was picked up in the year 2013, so I have been following both HN and the USCIS at that time. Never saw it make top of HN.
- CodeSheikh 11y agoBecause HN caters to tech audience and majority of the H1-B petitioners are tech workers. Get it?
- abhididdigi 11y agoI myself am an immigrant. I seriously don't see any need, because all the new immigrants will keep their eyes and ears open to see if their application is selected. All citizens/ existing immigrants, don't really care.
- asavadatti 11y agoSpeak for yourself. There are plenty of us who care.
- abhididdigi 11y agoIt is ironical, in asking me to speak for myself you are using the "royal" us.
- wavefunction 11y agoI'm a citizen of the US and I care. Especially about the abuses inherent in the system.
- bthrn 11y agoThere are tons of things posted to HN, which inevitably some people find interesting and some people don't. The fact is, many H-1B visa beneficiaries are in the technology field. In addition, many technology companies are pushing for immigration reform and this isn't the first time I've seen the subject come up here. Your stance could be taken on any technology-related content posted to HN. "Those who care about Linux will keep their eyes and ears open to Linux news. It doesn't have to be posted here because most OS users have Windows" sounds pretty ridiculous to me.
- untitledwiz 11y agoDoes anyone know or have an estimate on how many of the 233,000 total are filed under the Master's cap?
- mbesto 11y agoI'm curious too. Also it wasn't clear what the number was last year.
- flgr 11y agoIf we can extrapolate from the numbers at [1] (not sure how representative it is) then about 29% of the 233,000 total petitions would be filed under the Master's cap. That'd be around 67,337 Master's cap petitions. [1] http://redbus2us.com/trackers/h1b-visa-tracker/ http://redbus2us.com/trackers/h1b-visa-tracker/
- ikonst 11y agoIt guess this mostly matters for people who meant to apply through the Master's cap (graduates of US colleges with Master's degrees). Since there were more than 20k (as USCIS stated), the rest are reduced to regular applicants. But it's not like they're "taking your spot" in the lottery; if there was no preferential treatment for Master's, they'd still apply as regular applicants.
- Alleluja 11y agoThis is the process I went throught back in 2005 to get a job in IT after graduating in Business in Poland: 1. Got a position with an Indian company that promised a job after paid training ($5k) 2. After 3-month long training they totally and completely faked my resume. I.e. included 5-years experience, fake credentials, fake references. 3. Got me a job with large, large bank. 4. Got half my salary for 6-months. 5. After that I was on my own as I couldnt stand lies anymore. From my experience 90% + people from H-1B is on these terms in the US. We had trainees on our "camp" that literally haven't seen PC keybaord before. Ending up as IBM tools specialists in Fannie Mea, Freddie Mac, Capital One. This much about H-1B. And this much about interview process int the US too. And actually about dumb Americans who can't get a job in that country too.
- discardorama 11y agoAnd then you also have the fake universities giving out diplomas and OPT: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25410171/visa-mills-federal-jury-convicts-founder-pleasanton-university http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25410171/visa-mil...
- CodeSheikh 11y agoI see your point here, and it is valid -- to some extent. Yes, the "Indian" consultancies have been exploiting this system for ages and US Govt has been trying its best for past three years to not grant visas if USCIS can not establish Employer-Employee relationship. But still these consultancies always find loop holes. I have come to this country as an immigrant as well. I went to an average university first in midwest and then transferred to a top 10 engineering school. I have seen "Americans" who can not do basic algebra in Calculus 1 classes. And I have studied/work with "Americans" who are at the top of their game. It is really subjective. Unfortunately, American media is exporting "Booty Culture" (think Kim K.) to the world rather than preaching about their rockstar scientists and engineers.
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- UncleChis 11y ago
- gokhan 11y agoSo, let's say Google wants to move you to US and wants to pay you $200.000+ because you're a unique scientist that filling a position that can't be filled by a US citizen. After spending time and money for the interview process, they apply for H-1B on behalf of you. Than there goes the lottery, than no luck, than what? 168.000 is pretty decent number to turn down after your own companies spend all those resources just for the selection of those applicants.
- HarryHirsch 11y agoFor Nobel Prize winners and champion soccer players there's O-class visa. H1-B is for the plebs.
- rogeroga 11y agoactually, Miguel de Icaza, from Gnome and Mono fame, got an O visa, I wonder what was the initial Visa that Linus Torvalds got, but he could well apply for that O, with no objection from me.
- prostoalex 11y agoSomeone in the Google league is large enough to hire an individual in one of their non-US offices, and then apply for L-1 visa for intra-company transfers.
- dragonwriter 11y ago>So, let's say Google wants to move you to US and wants to pay you $200.000+ because you're a unique scientist that filling a position that can't be filled by a US citizen. After spending time and money for the interview process, they apply for H-1B on behalf of you. A "unique scientist" should probably be applying for an O-1A [0] rather than an H-1B. [0] http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/o-1-individuals-extraordinary-ability-or-achievement/o-1-visa-individuals-extraordinary-ability-or-achievement http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers...
- bradleyjg 11y agoThe H1B is a bit of a hack for that situation. Let's leave aside qualifying for EB-1 or O-1 as my sibling commentors suggest. At a slightly lower level, what we'd really want to do to fix the problem you identify is to unclog the EB-3 backlog and especially the country specific EB-2 backlogs. Employment based categories are only allocated 140,000 permanent visas a year (some of which are taken for NACARA catch-up). http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin/2015/visa-bulletin-for-april-2015.html http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy...
- luisdaniel12 11y agoWhy this is important: Because if a tech company wants to hire a foreigner, the visa process (regardless of skill^1) is basically worse than a coin toss. Which means companies have a much more limited pool of applicants. And let's be real, this country doesn't have nearly enough STEM professionals to meet demand. 1)Exceptions: Master's degree (another lottery), extraordinary ability (pretty tough).
- jedmeyers 11y agoMy guess is that so called 'Indian consultancies' are filing 2-3 times more H1B applications than they would reasonably need in order to receive as much actual visas as they can.
- fernandotakai 11y agois there any cap on how many visas one single company can apply to?
- jedmeyers 11y agoNo. And here, as an example, is the breakdown of visas issued per company for 2013: Rank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495 http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2013-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx *updated table formatting
- x0x0 11y agoRank H1B Visa Sponsor Number of LCA * Average Salary 1 Infosys 16,397 $75,154 2 Wipro 7,178 $76,920 3 Tata Consultancy Services 6,732 $64,350 4 IBM 6,502 $83,883 5 Deloitte Consulting 4,727 $98,264 6 Microsoft 4,075 $109,546 7 Larsen & Toubro Infotech 3,793 $59,408 8 Accenture 2,653 $72,704 9 Ernst & Young 2,353 $86,380 10 Satyam Computer Services 2,310 $70,495
- gusmd 11y agoI'm one of those 233k this year. Was an intern with a J1 a couple years ago, came back to my country to finish grad school, and my former employer wants to hire me back. From what I've been researching, there are several of these so-called "consultancies" that hire mostly Indian guys (please don't take it personally, no offence intended), fake their resumes, and give them shitty life conditions in the US. Lots of people also pay for these consultancies to apply for them with fake jobs as to increase their chances in the lottery. Its a shame that us with real, good-paying jobs have to go through that. I'm being hired because they cannot find someone in the US to fill this spot and because they already know me and think I'm a good fit for the company.
- borrowedhour 11y agoWhen do they reach out to people if their application has been selected in the lottery or not?
- gusmd 11y agoMy company's lawyer says that premium processing applicants receive their confirmation e-mail in the next few weeks IF they were selected. Regular processing should be notified by post late May/early June. edit: typo
- hazelnut 11y agoIt can take months. Got my approval in August.
- borrowedhour 11y agoIs approval notice the same as getting picked up in lottery? I think you can get picked up in a lottery but approval is not guaranteed.
- flgr 11y agoFrom the way I understand it cases with premium processing should here back until May 11. From what I've heard, others "before October" (one company doing consulting for H-1Bs expects these until August 15).
- manca 11y agoI was going through this painful process two years in a row. Last year there were around 170k petitions filled. A year before that, around 125k. We did not win the lottery both times, and opted for L1B instead this year. It is available only to the companies who have international offices in order to bring people from abroad to the US. Still waiting on this... I'll probably write a blog post about the whole experience, once everything is over. Stay tuned. P.S One thing is certain - US immigration desperately needs fix.
- abeiz 11y agoHow does this affect TN visas (if at all)?
- dudus 11y agoDo L-1 visas have caps? Why not hire oversees for a year and bring them in after that as a L-1 visa holder?
- somerandomone 11y agoL-1 visa holders can't change job.
- manca 11y agoAlmost 50% of all L1 petitions get RFE (Request for evidence). It's becoming harder to use this visa to bring people to the US these days, too. It's especially difficult for big outsourcing companies (proving and supplying enough evidence for the "specialized knowledge" (L1B) category is really non trivial for the companies and often not clearly understood by the USCIS officers, hence the RFE). However, USCIS has recently released a new L1B adjudications policy for public feedback (http://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-posts-updated-l-1b-adjudications-policy-public-feedback http://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-posts-updated-l-1b-adjudicat...) where they clearly define the "specialized knowledge" category. Maybe this will help companies to properly understand what's needed to demonstrate the specialized knowledge in the future, but I really doubt it.
- JOnAgain 11y agoIMHO, fix this by replacing the 'random' with 'highest salary' (or total comp). Just go down from the top. - It would alleviate (though probably not solve) the downward pressure on salaries. - It would ensure that companies are well motivated to find domestic workers since they would, theoretically, be cheaper. - It would ensure that H-1B's go to the people who would add the most value to the economy (or else the company would be less competitive due to overpaying). - It would favor the most talented foreigners rather than putting them in a random lottery with new grads. - It would allocate the H-1B's to the companies that need them most (since they're offering the most money) - It would maximize the future tax take of the US government (maximum income => maximum taxes paid) Ironically, this might have prevented me from getting my own H-1B as I got it fairly early in my career.
- gusmd 11y agoGood point, I have given that some thought too. Besides the problems already cited in the other comments, another problem is that smaller companies trying to grow might have a competitive disadvantage because of the upward pressure on the salaries.
- cplease 11y agoI fail to see the problem here under this proposal. Small companies can buy the same talent at the same price, whether it's domestically or abroad. You seem to be arguing that small companies should have special dispensation versus large companies to circumvent immigration laws in order to lower their labor costs. If you think small companies have a thumb on the scale, then give them a thumb on the scale. e.g. special tax incentives for hiring. And in fact small businesses do get thumbs on the scale from the government all the time. e.g. government solicitations favoring (by mandate) small and minority or female-owned businesses, SBA loans, etc. If you think they should get more, by all means argue that, but why at the expense of the US labor force?
- gusmd 11y agoWhere do you see me arguing that smaller companies should be allowed to circumvent any immigration laws? I simply argued that OP's proposal - which is a not a law - would put companies with scarcer funds in disadvantage against bigger companies with more money to burn. I'm all for a free market, but what the OP is proposing is a market distortion since there are a limited number of visas. Anyhow, you do realize that H1B filling requires a certified LCA, don't you?
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- sfeng 11y agoJust out of curiosity, how did you end up with options (not straight equity) if you founded the company?
- Synroc 11y agoI'm originally from France, came to the U.S. for undergraduate studies in 2010. My first year here, I fell in love and started dating an American student, and have been dating her ever since. Similarly, I fell in love with the United States, and wish to spend my life here. Currently, I am currently on OPT, applied for the H1-B process this year with my great SF company, and now am waiting to hear back about my 28% chance of getting a visa... I'm not trying to scam the U.S., or cheat Americans out of a job, and my company is paying me the same amount as the americans who started at the same time as me. Instead, I want to be an American, and be a part of this country. Despite this, I am now at risk of being deported if I don't get the visa, and having to leave behind my whole life here, and my girlfriend here who I intend to spend the rest of my life with. The worst part about this is that I am completely powerless, and at the whim of chance.
- kghose 11y ago1. You can apply for permanent residency under the extraordinary individual or highly qualified individual (if you have a specialty profession e.g. STEM) 2. Academic and non-profit jobs don't have a cap. You could take such a position and then apply for permanent residency. 3. You can apply for the green card lottery (I'm assuming you are born in France).
- Synroc 11y agoI like 2. and 3. Could I do 3. while doing 2?
- kghose 11y agoYes, as far as I know the lottery is independent of anything else, but you should check the USCIS website and consult an immigration lawyer. Be careful with the lawyer: try and get one through a recommendation of someone you trust who has used their services. Because of the high demand for immigration into the United States, there are many unscrupulous people involved in such matters.
- gorkemyurt 11y ago
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- nabucodonosor 11y agoThe worse part is that there are a lot of applicants filing multiple applications. They pay some agencies just to file H1B applications for them. This itself is against H1B application policy. There is an ongoing petition trying to get government's attentions: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/remove-and-ban-cheaters-who-sent-multi-petition-h1b-lottery-selection https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/remove-and-ban-ch...
- cplease 11y agoMultiple petitions with multiple legitimate sponsors is not actually disallowed. That being said, there are few situations where a legitimate sponsor would be on-board with an applicant simultaneously filing another petition. I'm not sure if an applicant is legally (as opposed to morally) required to disclose this to sponsors. It is certainly abused all the time.
- klipt 11y agoIt's a tragedy of the commons. In order to have a chance against 233k other petitions, if people can get multiple petitions filed on their behalf, they would be stupid not to. Which then inflates the overall number even further. The people it really hurts are highly qualified individuals sponsored by a single well known tech company ... like I was two years ago. Luckily I got my H1-B then and am now well on the way to a green card.
- nabucodonosor 11y agoFiling multiple applications is legitimate as long as it is all the sponsors who pay the application fees. But a lot of these sponsors (ICC) do not actually pay these fees, instead they get paid by the applicants to apply H1B for them.
- sjg007 11y agoNow it makes sense why there are so many foreign Masters students.
- pshin45 11y agoIf any of you are in the SF Bay Area, I'm organizing a hackathon[1] on May 29~31 in SF focused exclusively on immigration. Shoot me an email at my HN username at gmail dot com and I'd be happy to give you a generous discount code. [1] http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weekend/5961 http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-francisco/startup-weeke...
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- jedisct1 11y agoI had to resign from my job in San Francisco in order to go back to France for a couple months due to family issues. My H1B was revoked by my employer in January. My I-94 is valid until September 24, 2015. What are my options to go back and work in the US now? Is there anything besides filling a new petition in 2016? Or is transferring the previous H1B still an option?
- taurussai 11y agoYou don't have to go through the lottery again if you have already gone through the cap selection process once
- rurban 11y agoThey still need more than 6 months to answer the H1-B extension request, with the consequence that those candidates either cannot travel anymore or have to leave permanently.