With the number of applications for H-1B visas surpassing the annual limit of 65,000, US authorities said on Wednesday that they would have to resort to picking winners by lottery.
Thousands of Indians are in the running for the much sought after H-1B visa, which allows foreigners to work for up to six years in specified specialty professions.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it would “carry out the computer-generated random selection process” at a date to be announced. An additional cap of 20,000 visas for graduates of US universities was also crossed, meaning those will also be allocated by lottery.
US business leaders have long urged the Congress to raise the limits, arguing that the nation is running short of the talent it needs to remain competitive. “US employers deserve better than a random lottery to determine if they can hire the highly educated candidates they need,” said Robert Hoffman of Oracle.