Posted on: 18-05-05 13:47:29
DtC --
Quote:Neither
Orginally posted by DiogenestheCynic
I am still trying to get my head around this damned piece of information. It says that “the cap on H-1B visas granted to foreign workers was reached on Friday…”.
Is it saying that 65,000 H1b visas were issued by the end of day Oct 1, 2004. Or is the statement loosely worded and what it is actually trying to say is that “65,000 H1b petitions had got approval by the end of Oct 1st, 2004.
All it is saying is that they have received 65,000 or more petitions for the FY 2005 between April 2004 and October 1st 2004 for FY 2005.
Since they have already received equal to or more number of petitions than the quota, there is no point accepting even more applications for FY 2005 because they won't be approved anyway.
I don't think BCIS ever comments on the issuance of a visa to an applicant - they have to authority over that.
Issuing visas is the prerogative of the DoJ, which governs foreign consulates and BCIS has not say in the matter.
It is very common for an applicant to be denied an H-1B visa even when they have all supporting documents, including the approval notice from BCIS.
The 65,000 applications that they are saying they have received (as of Oct. 1st 2004) are now currently under process and people should be getting approval notices (or maybe most of them would have got approvals by now).
Quote:As I said in the previous post, they do some processing on the cases, but exactly how much they do, I cannot say.
If it is the latter, it would imply that the process of approvals starts much earlier, maybe as soon as the first petitions are received. It is virtually impossible to initiate processing of H1b applications on Oct 1st and finish processing them for approvals by the end of the same day! So, the process that eventually leads to approval/rejection must be starting well in advance. However, it seems that the result of that process is not made known to the applicant until after Oct 1.
They obviously do not come close to the approval, except in those cases that were complete in other respects in the previous FY but could not be approved because the quota ran out.
Those guys will be amongst the first to receive their approvals in the current FY.
Quote:I don't know if they have started doing something differently now, but in the past (pre 2001), the applications that could not make it into the quota sat there until the next FY.
Which FY do you mean? Are you saying that the petitions filed for FY2005, but not considered because the cap had been reached, are automatically cued in for the next FY, that is FY2006 at this time? I would assume that they return the unsuccessful petitions, refunding the fees and if the applicant wants to file for the next FY then he has to petition again.
They were simply filed away, and not returned to the petitioner.
Some employers may have gotten frustrated and recalled the applications, but INS did not return them by default.
Quote:Regardless of the morality, it happens all the time
Are you really sure about that. Because it appears rather illogical. While you say that the cases can be processed in different times, the reason for that variation need not always be on account of, or related to, the petition itself. It could also be different because there are different people handling different cases and their output efficiency could be different due to several factors. It is like two people standing at 2 reservation counters. As soon as one of the requests is entered in the computer, the seat gets locked until the transaction is completed. The acceptance of a petition for processing is a similar transaction and must be locked until a result is got. It wouldn’t be ethically appropriate to deny someone an H1b only because the officer dealing with that case was slow or wanted to investigate more or whatever.
It is quite common for someone filing early to wait longer for their visa because either the case was complex or the processing center was slow.
There was a time when the TX center was the best, and the NE and VT were the slowest.
VT used to take approx. 5 - 6 months for approval of a simple case, whereas TX used to take less than 3.
I believe now, VT is amongst the fastest (they cleaned up their act in 2004) and TX has become very slow.
I remember that when my company in the US was filing for my H-1B, they decided to do so in VT, instead of TX, even though the regional office I was working at was under TX jurisdiction.
The head office was under VT, and that's why the lawyer filed there.
I am certain that had they filed in TX, I would have waited another year for approval (this was before the quota was increased to 195,000).
Those days, it was quite common to hear that Mr. XYZ person has got his visa while Mr. ABC is waiting even though ABC filed a month before XYZ.
Quote:Nope, sorry, nice try
When I asked about “reserved quota for Canada” I meant is there a reserved quota of H1b for Canadian citizens?
The reserved category is only for a couple of countries, Chile and Singapore I believe.
This is because President Bush signed a trade aggrement with these countries in 2003 that allocated approx. 10% of the H-1B cap to nationals of these countries.
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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."
-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"
Quote:
Orginally posted by pratickm
The 65,000 applications that they are saying they have received (as of Oct. 1st 2004) are now currently under process and people should be getting approval notices (or maybe most of them would have got approvals by now).
Ok. Now I get it. For some reason I was getting the impression that 65,000 passports were stamped with H1b visas on Oct 1st 2004. As is said, that it takes 3 to 6 months for the approval process, that time period, or at least most of it, is probably counted after Oct 1st of the year.
From this I presume that if a petition is filed now for FY 2006, and it is processed in the regular manner, it could be up to Feb or March next year before the H1b gets approved. Right? And if someone is willing to shell out a the US$1000 premium processing fee, he is guaranteed a result within fifteen days of the time that he gives that bribe, but only after Oct 1st 2005. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks again for all the clarifications.
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Diogenes
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The Cynic
Quote:Correct.
Orginally posted by DiogenestheCynic
Ok. Now I get it. For some reason I was getting the impression that 65,000 passports were stamped with H1b visas on Oct 1st 2004. As is said, that it takes 3 to 6 months for the approval process, that time period, or at least most of it, is probably counted after Oct 1st of the year.
Also, the visa stamping is a totally unrelated process.
There is only a quota for approvals, no quota for stampings.
Some H-1B approval applicants are sometimes denied visas by the consulates (for various reasons).
Quote:Correct.
From this I presume that if a petition is filed now for FY 2006, and it is processed in the regular manner, it could be up to Feb or March next year before the H1b gets approved. Right?
Although, if the lawyer does a really thorough job AND the case is filed early enough AND is filed in a processing center that moves relatively fast, one can get an approval earlier than Feb.
Approvals start coming in by Dec - Jan as well.
Quote:That is correct, with one qualification.
And if someone is willing to shell out a the US$1000 premium processing fee, he is guaranteed a result within fifteen days of the time that he gives that bribe, but only after Oct 1st 2005. Please correct me if I am wrong.
All that the $1000 is guranteeing you is a response from CIS, not a decision (approval or rejection).
In some cases, all they do is issue an RFI within the 15 days and that completes their obligation for responding within 15 business days.
But by and large, the majority of people do get an actual decision (approval or rejection) once they pay the $1000 within 15 days.
RFI is issued only if the lawyer screwed-up, or someone tried to do it themselves and didn't know what they were doing.
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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."
-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"
