Reason for filing more H1 B applications for the year 2014


sai221

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Hi,

For the last year H1-B i.e 2013, it took time for reaching 65000 applications for H1B and there was no lottery, but this year i.e 2014, H1-B cap completed on Apr 5th,2013 and the situation came to conduct Lottery . Could you please let us know the reason for this and is the US Governament changed any rules for issuing H1-B visas

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The reason for this is:

USCIS is obligated to take H1B applications for the 1st 5 business days (April 1st - April 5th). Everyone who applies within that timeframe is at the same priority level (not talking about premium processing).

Now if everyone is at the same priority level and USCIS gets more applications than the quota (greater than 65,000 + 20,000 Master's) then they have to do a lottery to see which applications are allowed to even be considered for approval.

Last year the quota was met well after that April 5th "minimum" date

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Hi,

For the last year H1-B i.e 2013, it took time for reaching 65000 applications for H1B and there was no lottery, but this year i.e 2014, H1-B cap completed on Apr 5th,2013 and the situation came to conduct Lottery . Could you please let us know the reason for this and is the US Governament changed any rules for issuing H1-B visas

H1 rules didn't changed.

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To start, the U.S. government did not change any rules regarding issuing H-!B visas or the program. This is not the first time this has happened, there was an even bigger demand, which triggered the lottery selection process, in 2008.

There are 3 reasons for this year's (FY 2104) high demand for H-1B visas (both regular and Masters quotas). First, and foremost, an improving economy has increased the demand for professional and skilled foreign workers with degrees. Second, the USCIS issued a statement toward the end of March that there maybe a large demand and that the quota numbers could be exceeded during the first fling week, thus requiring (triggering) the lottery selection process. This in turn caused employers to panic and rush to file their petitions. In other words, the USCIS' statement became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Third (which has not got as much press) is that the significant majority of the H-1B visas petitions were filed by ~10 - 12 Indian IT outsourcing companies. There are questions and debate about this situation, and it is one of the reasons driving calls for restrictions to the H-1B program. It does cause problems for other companies who what to hire a select foreign worker or two with specialized skills (which may not even be in IT).

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No concrete reasons, but my guess are:

1. Economy is picking up

2. The first OPT extension is coming to end, adding more advance degree holders

3. Beneficiaries are paying illegally to file H1b

4. In the end of March USCIS announced that they may conduct lottery this time

5. Expecting a lottery this year, most of the desi consultancies filed H1b without project. They hope that because economy is picking up, by the time they get RFE, they will find one.

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3. Beneficiaries are paying illegally to file H1b

5. Expecting a lottery this year, most of the desi consultancies filed H1b without project. They hope that because economy is picking up, by the time they get RFE, they will find one.

Absolutely true..I still say the Desi consulting companies, whether shady or clean take money from the candidates to file for their H1B...the reason employers give is, they do not want to risk these days with 221g, all that ****.

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