Global Culture

After being offline (no web, email or blogs!) for over a week I’m catching up with my feeds to find the stories that tell the tale of this incredibly diverse world. The first one comes via Michael Parekh about an editorial on Barron’s Online entitled End the Work-Visa Lottery by Thomas G. Donlan:

[April 2] was the first day that applicants could file for the 65,000 H-1B visas that admit foreigners to work in the U.S. as engineers, programmers or other skilled workers. By that afternoon, more than 150,000 people had filed. By Tuesday afternoon, the golden gates were closed.

The posts complain about the lottery-type of system in which as many as 85,000 applicants and their sponsors will be left without a solution. Because of the type of visa, these are immigrants that have already found a job in the United States. According to the H1 Base site there is already legislation being pushed to top the number of accepted immigrants through this type of visa to 115,000 and allow for annual raises to 180,000 as market conditions dictate.

The nature of these visas allows applicants to apply for a permanent resident visa down the road should they decide to stay, which is why it is such a popular avenue for immigrants seeking to start a new life full of opportunities.