The big news is that the masters cap was hit as of December 24th. I had been predicting since last summer that this 20,000 quota would be hit in the last week of the year and the pace of usage stayed extremely consistent. The general quota has 7,700 visas of 65,000 remaining as of December 31st and the rolling four week average is now running at just over 1500. We have seen a modest up tick in usage since the masters cap ran out, but not as much as might be expected. It looks like we've got five to six weeks until the cap is reached if the pace of usage remains the same.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Blog title
Collapse
Rep. Issa introduced HR 43 a couple of days ago.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h43/news_blogs
H.R.43 - To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate the diversity immigrant program and to re-allocate those visas to certain employment-based immigrants who obtain an advanced degree in the United States.
What do you guys think?
He has introduced such Bills in the past. They have turned out to be what we call fig leaves to eliminate the DV program without giving the Visas to a category where there is demand (ie Aliens of EXCEPTIONAL ability with an advanced degree) or to structure the re-allocated visas in such manner that very few people (if any) would qualify for the re-allocated visas. I looked for the text of the Bill but it is not out yet. See below:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-43
We need to wait till the text is available to see if Issa is turning a new leaf and this is a genuine attempt to better allocate the Visas or if this is another insidious attack to reduce immigration.
Incidentally, he has a criminal record that some might find of interest:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/rep-darell-issa-american-role-model-c