News

Lottery for Temporary Work Visas

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

  • Julia Preston
  • New York Times

Federal authorities said they ran an electronic lottery to select 85,000 highly skilled immigrants to receive temporary work visas, known as H-1Bs, for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency received 163,000 petitions for the visas, which are limited to annual quotas of 65,000 for immigrants with skills in technology, science and engineering, and 20,000 for immigrants with advanced degrees from American universities. The agency said it would notify by June 2 the employers whose petitions for immigrant workers were selected in the lottery, and the visas would be fully processed by July 1. A waiting list was created in case some of the selected petitions do not meet the requirements.

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