No Hiring New H-1B Visa Holders for the Next 15 Months

[hayasa]

Companies that didn’t file a visa petition before this week must wait until April 2013 to try again and won’t be able to employ an H-1B worker until October 2013.​

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services just announced, “On June 11, 2012, USCIS received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the statutory cap for FY 2013. On June 7, 2012, USCIS also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. USCIS will reject petitions subject to the cap for H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY 2013 that are received after June 11, 2012.”​

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuarta...new-h-1b-visa-holders-for-the-next-15-months/

Bad news for international graduates. (12+19) months of OPT might be a solution.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

That doesn't help MFE grads one bit, given the tough market they are in.
Only STEM grads can benefit from the 19 months OPT.
What will happen to those not fall under STEM (such as business school programs, perhaps)?

 

[AlexandreB]

Could the fact that we're in an election year has anything to do with this arguably populist measure?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Could the fact that we're in an election year has anything to do with this arguably populist measure?

How so?
The quota has to do with how many people apply each year, right?

 

[AlexandreB]

How so?
The quota has to do with how many people apply each year, right?

That's what I thought. It simply that given that reducing the amount of immigrant workers is often popular with the voters base so it could have been a tactic. However as you say Andy I doubt the current government has much immediate say in the matter, especially if the number of visas was set at the beginning of the year.