H1B Cap reached

USCIS has announced today that, as of December 21 2009, they have received sufficient h1b applications to fill the quota for FY 2010 (1 oct 2009 to 30 Sept 2010). They have already received the cap exempt, Masters Degree holder cap of 20,000. So, no more H1b applications will be accepted for the FY 2010.

They will start accepting FY 2011 (1 oct 2010 to 30 sept 2011) H1b applications from 1 apr 2010.

The applications where filled within in the first one week, for the last 2 years. But, this year, I went on for 8 months starting in april 2009. USCIS has received more than 10,000 applications in last one month. Is it a sign of economy improving ? Atleast, I would hope for it !!!

December 2009 Visa Bulletin

The December 2009 visa bulletin was released yesterday.

In the Employment based Green Card category, EB3 has new date of 01 MAY 01 for India and 01 JUN 02 for China. EB2 for India is 22 JAN 05 and China is 01 APR 05. EB1 and EB5 categories for all the countries are current.

November and December bulletins had literally no movement for EB2 India and just 7 days movement for EB3 applicants from India. October visa bulletin, for EB2 applicants from India there is very little movement from 08 JAN 05 in september to 22 JAN 05 in october. You might remember in July it was 01 JAN 00; August it was 01 OCT 03. It is a big disappointment for EB2 and EB3 applicants from India as the dates has not moved or had moved very less by matter of days in 2 consecutive bulletins.

Things to note are: The date refers to your priority date. For example, for EB2 India, if your priority date eariler than 22 JAN 05, then you are eligible to apply for I 485 and can get your green card soon.

Family based green card limit for FY-2010: 226,000
Employment based green card limit for FY-2010: 140,000

Under INA Section 202(A), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2010 (1 oct 2009 to 30 sept 10) -- the per-country limit is 25,620.Basically, only 25,620 green card applicants will be granted permanent residency in FY 2010, for national origin of India, for family and employment categories.

October is the start of the new fiscal year 2010 for visa and green card.

Reference: http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4587.html

H1B cap

The new information on USCIS website says, "As of October 30, 2009, approximately 53,800 H-1B cap-subject petitions had been filed. USCIS has approved sufficient H1-B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees to meet the exemption of 20,000 from the fiscal year 2010 cap. Any H1-B petitions filed on behalf of an alien with an advanced degree will now count toward the general H1-B cap of 65,000. USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn."

It is very interesting to see that just 3 days back, USCIS told they had 52,800 applications. Now, the website says 53,800. There is no explanation anywhere if they got 1000 applications in just 3 days or if it was an error in the earlier posting. If they have got 1000 applications in just 3 days, then the remaining 11,200 h1b will be filled pretty soon.

FY 2010 h1b cap update

According to the new data published on the USCIS website, the 20,000 cap exempt advanced degree quota has been completed filled. This quota for advanced degree holders. So, any new application with advanced degree will be counted on the general category of 65,000 h1b petitions per fiscal year. Of this, USCIS has 52,800 petitions which leaves only 12,200 h1b petitions to be filled. As on september 25, 2009 had 46,700 petitions. So, USCIS has received about 6,100 applications in just one month.

Fiscal Year 2010, started on Oct 1, 2009 and will end on Sept 30, 2010. USCIS started accpeting h1b petitions for this year from April 1, 2009.

When will I get my green card

Immigration Voice is a 501 c 4 registered non-profit organization acting as an interface between legal immigrants waiting for green card and the legislative and executive branches of the government.

They have a new link on their website,When will I get my green card, you can login and give your priority date, it will tell your expected Green Card date.

The neat feature is they have a spillover box, based on 2008 USCIS statistics, they will calculate the spill over specific to your case and give it to you.

What is Spillover?
Spillover is the based on the rule from USCIS that more than the alloted Green Cards can be given to EB2 category, if EB1 is not completely filled. For example, per year if only 1000 EB1 green cards are given for India, then the remaining 1800 can be given to EB2 India along with already allowed 2800.

Please check it out. It is really neat, a more liberal number I would say.

November Visa Bulletin

The November 2009 visa bulletin was released today.

In the Employment based Green Card category, EB3 has new date of 22 APR 01 for India and 01 JUN 02 for China. EB2 for India is 22 JAN 05 and China is 01 APR 05. EB1 and EB5 categories for all the countries are current.

November bulletin has literally no movement for EB2 India and just 7 days movement for EB3 applicants from India. Last visa bulletin, for EB2 applicants from India there is very little movement from 08 JAN 05 in september to 22 JAN 05 in october. You might remember in July it was 01 JAN 00; August it was 01 OCT 03. It is a big disappointment for EB2 and EB3 applicants from India as it has not moved or had moved very less by matter of days.
Things to note are:The date refers to your priority date. For example, for EB2 India, if your priority date eariler than 22 JAN 05, then you are eligible to apply for I 485 and can get your green card soon.

Family based green card limit for FY-2010: 226,000
Employment based green card limit for FY-2010: 140,000

Under INA Section 202(A), the per-country limit is fixed at 7% of the family and employment annual limits. For FY-2010 (1 oct 2009 to 30 sept 10) -- the per-country limit is 25,620.Basically, only 25,620 green card applicants will be granted permanent residency in FY 2010, for national origin of India, for family and employment categories.

October is the start of the new fiscal year 2010 for visa and green card.

Reference: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4576.html

Meeting Senator

http://immigrationvoice.org/ (IV) is a non-profit organisation working for easing the painful process, LEGAL immigrants in US are going through to get the Green Card.

As per IV's suggestion, and doing the 22 years to get Green Card analysis, I asked for an appointment to meet Texas state Senator John Cornyn. I got a call from Senator's office to first meet one of his staff.

Me and my wife, along with 4 other friends, went yesterday to meet Senator John Cornyn's North Texas Depty Regional Director -- J.Collin McLochlin.

The meeting went really well. Collin was nice enough to hear our specific problems, he listened patiently and took notes about IV, the solutions document given by IV which includes request to remove per country limit and give quota exempt for applicants with Masters Degree in one of the STEM fields from a US university.

I gave a hard copy of all our personal problem documents describing our personal hurdles in getting Green Card and also the IV documents. I also made a CD of all these documents and gave it to him.

Collin said he will pass on all the suggestions to the senator and seek his support.

We are hoping to meet another Senator and local US Congressman soon.

Whoever is waiting for the Green Card, if we all can do our part of meeting the senators and local congressman, I strongly believe we can help ourselves, get our green cards faster.