H-1, PCB 0. Again

That's right. Just like last year. I have kept all the toings and froings of this off my blog as I had planned a victorious "I've finally got my visa" entry when everything was done and dusted. And all my friends who knew what was going on all said they knew this time it would work out. Well, it didn't.

When I was over in NY in January, I stressed to the company hiring me how important it was we filed on the first day of applications being processed, which was April 2nd. I met with my lawyer and we worked out a timetable that would get all their paperwork to them at the earliest possible opportunity and the latest date she would require it back to her in order to send the application off by the end of March. And so with that in place, I thought surely nothing could go wrong this time. Ha! My lawyer dropped the ball and for some reason didn't send anything to them until two weeks AFTER the date we had initially agreed on. And so my application was not ready to be filed until this Friday just gone, April 6th. Which in previous years would not have been too much of a problem. But this year, the USCIS announced that they received the full quota by April 3rd and any applications received after that will not be processed.

A bill was introduced into Congress on March 23rd to increase the H-1 quota almost three times over to 180,000. If it is successful and the increase is with immediate effect, then I'll be on my way. If not, then I'll be stuck in the UK for yet another year.