H1B Visas Run Out In One Day

Courtesy Phillipine News

SAN FRANCISCO – American businesses and other organizations that want to hire highly educated and skilled foreign workers for the fiscal year 2008 will be unable to do so because the H1B visa reached its annual quota in one day, reports the Philippine News. Any foreign worker sponsored by a U.S. company may apply on a first come first serve basis, that is, as long as the visa numbers are still available. Granted to scientists, architects, engineers, doctors and other skilled professionals, the H1B visa is open to all nationalities, and a significant number of Filipino professionals had availed of the H1B in past years. In 2004, the U.S. government reduced the number of H1B visas granted from 195,000 to 65,000. This year, more than 133,000 applied the first day it was available, and, to everyone’s surprise, the H1B visa was declared filled on the first day of filing, April 2, 2007.

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