H1B visa debate

This debate is on TV back in 2007, now is 2008 and the issue still exist.

2009 H1B visa new announcement

1. H1B visa (non master degree holder quota) usually used up within one day. People from Singapore and Chile have special reserved quota included so total available quota is less than 6,5000.
Instead of random picked applicants who submit case on April 1 (or maybe April 2 when quota filled up), USCIS decided to draw "lucky applicants" between April 1 to April 5. It means you get less chance to win the lotto.

2. For master degree holder who pursue 25,000 quota, applicants have two times opportunities to enter drawing, one for master degree round and the other for regular round(65,000)

3. No duplicate H1B visa applications in one company for the same person.

4. Applicants who hold master degree need to complete all required courses and necessary dissertation.

5. Premium service fee 1000 dollars remain the same but case will be processed after USCIS finish drawing.

see more detail please visit official USCIS press release on March 19.

After you submit I-485, can you forget about H1B?

I -485 is one of the process when you apply green card. It means that you have intention of immigration. After that, a lot of people also apply EAD (work permit) without renew your H1-B( if your H1b is going to expire). You should still keep your H1B and renew it because you do not know the final result of your green card application. If you fail( hope not), you still have H1B visa status and try to apply your green card again (or ask your spouse to try if you have one). Otherwise, you do not have any back up plan.

Academic Research on H1B visa

Of course! H1B visa issue will be a great topic for social science study. You can download the study here for free.

Bill Gates Testimony to the Senate again, today regarding H1B visa

Well, I can not find the testimony today so let's watch it last year.

H1-B visa biggest users

Guess which business news is in top 1 spot at Digg? Yap, guess who is getting the most work visas.

The majority of top ten companies all based or "branch out" from India is another issue but what really interesting is this table also from business week. As you can see, there are also a lot of Universities hire H1-B visa workers, such as Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Duke, you name it. Are those who hired by Universities also cheap labor as some people try to argue about H1B workers? I really do not think so. Will KPMG, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey , Google, IBM also hire H1B workers to save some cost? I am not sure since I did not work there but I doubt.

Need more H1B visa?

Bill Gates again urged to have more H1B visa quota for USA companies. Whether H1B visa is good for USA job force or not is always debatable and just like any other economic related issue such as whether NAFTA is good for USA or not also has endless debate. See below CNN report regarding last year Bill Gates testify "We need more H1B visa"

H1B visa wiki page

Wikipedia is one of the most power encyclopedia in the world, in fact, I think is the most updated one. There is a H1B visa wiki page that you can read about unbiased information unlike some private law firm website. From the chart you can see that the major companies received H1B quota are base in India and followed by Microsoft and IBM.

PERM FAQ

There are so many jargons and abbreviation in laws and immigration law is no exception. Sometimes lawyers charge you a lot just to talk with you for 5 minutes and you still do not understand what the hack he or she is talking about. You can actually visit here and get some ideas before you start the whole process of American Dream.

I know one of my friend he dig into almost every single page of USCIS and DOL website and file green card himself and got approved. If you are DIY kind of guy, you can also file your H1B or Green Card yourself. It is possible to do so and no one said that you have to have lawyer to apply for you.

USCIS updated background check policy Q & A

USCIS updated background check policy Q & A on Feb 28, 2008. see official page here.