The H-1B Situation

This post is 1 week late.

So last Monday, April 2, was the first day for filing the H-1B visa petition. I need this visa to work here in US for another 3 years. Every year, there's 65000 spots for filing and another 20 000 for people with Master degree or higher. Now, for the last 3 years or so, the spots have been filled up faster and faster; last year, the spots were filled by May. I was expecting that it would disappear even faster this year. But never would I expect it would disappear so quickly. 150 000 applications within 1 day! (the final number now is about 120000 for 65000 spots)

News source : http://www.visalaw.com/2007_04_01_blogarchive.html (scroll down to the bottom)

As a result, all applications filed on the 1st and 2nd day (April 2 and 3) will be put in a random computer generated lottery. This will take several weeks to find out the results.

However, this has really hit many people, including me, hard. I couldn't sleep on the night I found out. I talked to many people about this and found so many reactions. Some people who panicked so hard on the thought of having to get out of the US permanently. Some people seemed to accept their fate come what may. Few come up with "clever" scheme to stay here. As for me, I am preparing for the worst, the day I have to go back for good, and never has the days feel so numbered.

After the first day of panic, I am actually quite calm about the whole thing. There's really nothing much I can do since it's entirely up to luck. Right now, I'm just preparing for the worst - if I my petition isn't selected, and if that happens I will surely go back - to either Singapore or Jakarta.

I'm actually cool to the idea of going back. Over the years, my good friends have gone back one by one and they are doing okay, so it's kind of inevitable too that I will go back.
It's just I have a plan here in US and some "unfinished business". I will not elaborate on the "unfinished business" part. But I love my job and way of life now. I can save up and enjoy a reasonably good life. After 3 years when my visa expire, I can go to a grad school and study something I really like without parents interference. But if I have to go back, I guess I would have to work much harder.

For now, I haven't told my parents yet about this. I have only told my sister, for if the worst happen, she will be alone without relatives here in US until my cousin comes next year. I don't want to leave my sister alone either, but if the worst happened, she has to be prepared.

What am I going to do from now on? I have had some thoughts on what to do immediately after my OPT ends mid July. After the H-1 news hit, I felt like I have to do some of them. There are still some cities I haven't visited that I would like to visit: Boston, Chicago, Miami, Hawaii, somewhere nice in Texas and the south, etc and I'd like to travel around end of July. Then, I'd like to attend the San Diego Comic Con at the end of July. After that, I probably will go back for good from LAX, flying the Airbus Singapore Airlines non-stop flight from LA to Singapore ... and never look back?

I really hope for the best, but I also have to prepare for the worst. Pray for me (and some of my friends too, including my roommate).