Beginning today, the US government begins accepting applications from employers for the 65,000 H-1B visas for Fiscal Year 2009. According to news reports, "Citizenship and Immigration Services has said it will accept H-1B visa petitions over five business days, ending April 7. In mid-April, the agency will run a computerized lottery to choose about 65,000 petitions."
For the first time, companies are prohibited from filing more than one petition for the same worker.
Reports also indicated that, "The three biggest users of the H-1B program in 2007 were three companies based in India that perform computer and software contract work here using foreign workers, mainly Indian."
"The three companies — Infosys Technologies and Wipro of Bangalore, and Satyam Computer Services of Hyderabad — accounted for more than 8,500 of the H-1B visas that received preliminary approval in 2007, figures show."
I wonder how many Microsoft is going to apply for?
