Once again, it’s that crazy time of year for immigration lawyers and employers trying to squeeze in the last few H-1B petitions for the short filing season of one week (April 1-April 7, 2014).  If demand exceeds supply, which most immigration practitioners predict, there will be a lottery. Last year, there were 124,000 applications for 85,000 spots. That means that once again, employers cannot predict if they will be able to hire their candidates, who on top of everything else, will not be able to start work until October 1, 2014 unless they presently have some other type of work authorization.

This silliness – no annoyance – no, downright incomprehensible system – is thanks to Congress, especially the House G.O.P. members who refuse to vote on any type of immigration bill.  Last June, the Senate passed S.744, which would have increased the numbers of available H-1B visas (abut also changed many other aspects of the program).  And, in the fall of 2013, House Democrats introduced H.R. 15 that would have tracked S. 744. http://immigrationimpact.com/tag/h-r-15-and-s-744/ Other skills based immigration legislation introduced as standalone bills, were never voted upon in the House. Thus, we are where we have been for years since annual caps were first introduced over a decade ago. Every year, the cap gets reached anywhere from within a day to a few months in the height of the recession. During the rest of the year, employers cannot file H-1B petitions until the following April for jobs that cannot begin until the subsequent October. If an employer misses this coming filing season, it’s mind numbing for an immigration practitioner to have to tell employers who find the perfect candidate in mid-April, in June, October or December, that they will have to wait until April 1, 2015 to file an H-1B petition for a job that can’t begin until October 1, 2015.  Employers don’t just hire in winter/early spring, as their personnel demands fluctuate all year long.

Recently, 636 companies https://www.uschamber.com/letter/multi-industry-letter-immigration-reform recently signed on to a letter to House Speaker Boehner urging him to call a vote on immigration reform.  And just this week, the Democrats in the House introduced a “discharge petition” to force a vote in the House on H.R. 15. http://www.seattleimmigrationlawyerblog.com/2014/03/house-dems-want-vote-on-immigr.html  Whether the House will call a vote remains to be seen. After all, it’s an election year, where such a vote in the House is likely to affect elections for individual candidates.