Another Year, Another H-1B Crisis
Summertime is a time for relaxation, backyard BBQ’s, vacations and beach parties.
It’s also a time for worrying about running out of H-1B visas.
Congress has provided us with 58,200 H-1B visas annually. These visas are made available on October 1st of each year. Once they run out, no new H-1B visas can be issued until October 1st of the following year.
For about the 5th time in the past eight years we are poised to run out of H-1B visa numbers before the end of the year. For the second year in a row, we are poised to run out of H-1B visa numbers the very same day they become available. In fact, this year we may run out of visas even before they become available. How is this possible?
A “new” quota of 65,000 visas will become available on October 1st 2005. However, employers have been allowed to file petitions for these visas since April 1st. As a result, approximately 49,000 petitions had been filed as of July 31st. If all of these petitions are approved, there will only be about 9,000 visas remaining until October 1 of 2006 – no, that is not a typo, I said 2006 – 14 months from now. If filings continue at their current rate (and they usually do), 58,200 visas will become available on October 1st, only to be immediately used up by the applications already on file.
Not everyone has to worry about this, however. Generally speaking, aliens who are already in H-1B status do not need to worry about the quota, so H-1B professionals who merely wish to extend their status and/or change their employer do not need to worry about the quota. There are exceptions to this, however, so to be safe, employers who are thinking of petitioning a prospective employee for H-1B status should do so now or risk having to wait for another year or more. Aliens who are thinking of obtaining H-1B employment in the United States need to get that job offer now or they may have to go back home and wait for next year.
Of course, if you’re a U.S. citizen, you could ask your Congressman why Congress isn’t doing anything about this. If you’re not a U.S. citizen, then perhaps you should consider applying for citizenship – but that’s an issue for another column.
