4/10/2007 3PM Update: I just received this in mail. Please consider this as unconfirmed:
“It has just been announced that advanced degree H-1B’s quota has not been met. There are about 7,000 left. If you have a candidate in the process that already has a US Masters or above, please move quickly with them as we can not say how quickly the last of the quota will be used up. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

As many people in the same boat as I, would already know, the H1-B cap for FY 2008 has been reached. Unlike last year, it didn’t take it until May 26th to fill. This time, USCIS had received more than 150,000 applications by April 3rd itself. It’s now going to use the lottery system to decide the fate of so many people. You can read about it(pdf).

My application falls under the Master’s quota that gives me a better chance of landing with a H1. The thing is , folks at USCIS still don’t know how many of the 150000+ applications are filed under the Master’s quota.

So, in my case, the following algorithm applies:

numTotalApps = 200000; //estimates from some people online
numMSQuotaApps = <some unknown figure>;
if ( applicationsLimitAlreadyReached ) {
if ( numMSQuotaApps < 20000 ) {
System.out.println("You should in all probability get the H1-B. So chill and concentrate on work.");
} else {
System.out.println("You probability of getting H1-B is " + 20000/numMSQuotaApps + ". Best of Luck !");
}
} else {
System.out.println("There is a high probability that there will be 20000+ apps already in the " + numTotalApps + " already received. Please sit and hope that everything works out.");
}

Anyways, I just hope I don’t get screwed over. After all the effort I put into getting my OPT fixed, if I don’t end up with a H1-B, my visa adviser back at school is going to be very disappointed.

And… just a few thoughts on this whole lottery system. I think to an extent it is unfair from start itself, because USCIS is going to consider all the 150000+ applications in the lottery. It’s unfair because:

• I feel preference should be given to people already sitting here in US before anyone else. We are already settled here, working and being productive.
• Companies should be divided in some sort of tier and based on the quality of company, applications from one company should be given preference over applications from another. This would make sure that people who take the easier route (going though consultants), have less chances that someone who got the job directly in a company.
• Many Indian companies apply for H1’s for their employees who aren’t maybe going to come here for the next year or so. In such cases, these applications are just getting wasted. So, again I feel applications from with-in US should have a precedence over applications from outside of US.

Do note… I say these things because of the situation I am in. If I had joined a consultant (which I was going to at a point of time), or had I graduated at a time when I had to apply for H1 with out my Master’s degree… I would have talking about something else here.