Note this was in 2007, during the height of the H1B body shop scams. The USCIS visa system was overwhelmed by companies like Infosys and Tata just submitting 1000s of applications for clearly underqualified, yet cheap candidates for jobs that didn't exist. This writer probably got their visa rejected over a less qualified candidate because of the quota limits for H1b.
FY 2008/2009 were indeed a bit of outliers at the time, but since 2014/2015 it's getting worst and worst. FY 2023 had 483,000 applications for ~85k total slots.
This is unfortunately still the case. H1B lottery is still a thing. I had to lose a team member and the person saw a similar email in their inbox. Sucks!
> This is unfortunately still the case. H1B lottery is still a thing. I had to lose a team member and the person saw a similar email in their inbox. Sucks!
The lottery is still a thing, but I vaguely recall that a few years ago they slapped down some of the foreign outsourcing companies that were abusing the system. I'm I remembering correctly?
Fwiw, there are other countries who would be very happy to have your team member if they’re interested in moving. Canada is much like the US and is way more generous with its visa policy, and the UK for all its problems is extremely easy to move to if you already work for a company who can sponsor your visa. Indian citizens also get a nice perk which (because India doesn’t allow dual nationality) they might find enjoyable - commonwealth (including India) citizens who gain permanent residency in the UK are entitled to pretty much all the rights of citizens including voting and standing for office.
You are talking about the diversity visa. It only applies to countries that don't send many people already.
H1B has a global cap, so there's a lottery. It's a completely different thing.
Green Cards also have a cap. China (and India in particular) are screwed. If you are from India and take your 1 year old baby to the US, it's likely – if nothing is done – that your baby will never get a green card. Child dependents lose eligibility at 21 years old; the current projections are pointing to much longer times than that.
I think you are talking about the Green Card lottery which doesn't allow certains countries that have had too many immigrants in the past 7 (I think) years. The H1-B lottery doesn't have country limitations.
It was in no way the easiest: For that you have to go back to 2001-2003, where there were 195k available visas every year, instead of the current 85k. Visas would still run out, but the big race to submit on the first day, which eventually gave us the lottery, came later.
It wasn't all easy though: All those extra H-1s didn't come with extra green card slots, so even an EB2 from Europe had a very long wait.
In 2014, I interned at a small startup in SF, and one of the other interns was someone in the US on a student visa partway through a postgrad degree. He was super smart, super friendly, and fully wanted to stay in the US after he graduated. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get an H1B to stay working in the US after graduating, and he was forced to move back home (and I think later ended up moving to Canada, although I can't remember if that ended up going through or not). It seemed kind of crazy to me that we'd let someone smart come here and receive a great education, but then not let them stay and actually work here and contribute to an American company, pay taxes, etc. If anything, it seems like it would make more sense to _require_ that someone work and live in the US after going to college here on a visa to get a return on the investment.
Companies like Tata and Infosys also required their H1B employees to grant them power of attorney, and they would also file fraudulent tax returns on behalf of employees.
As a foreigner living in another country, you represent your country. Depending on what you do, you may be opening doors or closing doors.
I don't know what Kunal's temporary work authorization was, but note also that the STEM extension for the OPT program has been tweaked in recent years, so that you can typically get three bites at the H-1B apple while you're still on an F-1 visa.
