Concerns about H1B visas

[RBBmba@2014]

Hi Veritas Prep consultants,
Some serious concerns about recent H1B visa system -

Of late, there has been a game of luck in place through the newly introduced lottery system in approving H1B Visas to Indians/Internationals. So, obviously it'll affect some of the Indians/Internationals to obtain non-immigrant work authorization in US after completion of their MBAs in US (although there is slightly some hire caps for candidates with US Master's degree, I presume it includes MBA).

Though things may (or may not) improve in furture, however, based on this current development I'd like to know your thoughts and advise for Indian applicants.

1. Should we refrain from applying to top 20 US b-schools and concentrate only on top 10 schools provided that one is competitive enough for the top 10 brands?

2. Does this scenario hold good for top 10 US b-schools as well or it'll be dominant in case of candidates graduating from top 15/20 schools ? (I hope, you understand what I try to covey here...)

3. Will it have prominent effect in case of most conventional/sought-after post-MBA industries such as IB,MC, Tech Consulting etc. or it'll have adverse effect mostly in the non-conventional industries other than those mentioned herewith ?

( I think, US is going somewhat UK way with respect to VISA tightening process...)

4. I know there are some important aspects such as value of an US MBA/education, network I'd develop during that two years etc. , BUT I believe, you'd agree to the very basic fact i.e. ROI - folks coming out of an US b-school with an average debt of $100K-$150K if don't get the opportunity to work in US even for the loan repayment period of 5-7 years or so then it requires a second thought. Isn't it ?

Pretty grave concern, I think, for Indian/International applicants and hence, I'd much appreciate your thoughts and feedback on the questions I've raised above.

Look forward to hear from you!

[Bryant@VeritasPrep]

First, for those who are unclear on the potential 2015 H1B lottery (there was one year ago, around 2008 as well), let me elaborate more on how the lottery works (it will actually depend on 2015 H1B Visa quota):

Step 1 : First step that USCIS would do as soon as it receives a H1B petition is to label and identify each of the petitions with a unique identifier. This is the number that would be used for random selection algorithm. Once it is labeled, they will group the overall petitions into two sets, one as masters quota and one as regular quota.

Step 2 : If there are more than 20,000 petitions received for masters quota, they would run a computer generated random selection process, which is called H1B lottery, across all the masters petitions pool to pick the 20,000 petitions that would meet the cap for Masters quota for FY 2015.

Step 3 : All the H1B petitions filed under master's quota, that did NOT get selected in the lottery or random selection are placed or combined with all the pool of petitions received regular quota H1B petitions.

Step 4 : If the total number of petitions in the combined pool are over 65,000 petitions, which is the cap limit, a computer generated random selection process is run on the pool to identify the petitions that will qualify for the regular quota cap limit.

Step 5 : USCIS will send the list of all selected petitions numbers to the service centers. The USCIS service centers will proceed with next level H1B Visa processing for adjudication of the selected petitions.

Step 6 : All the petitions that were not selected in random selection process or lottery will be returned to their respective parties either attorneys or the employers directly along with the Fee. If there were duplicate filings for a same employee by an employer, no fee will be returned.

Step 7 : USCIS will inform all the selected petition holders with their case number for tracking purposes during processing. It will be an EAC number.

As for how an H1B lottery should affect b-school application decisions, it really shouldn't. The onus is on employers to provide H1B visas for employees, and while yes, some schools will want to see a high liklihood of H1B visa status for applicants, this is generally universal. All schools will prefer to have students who are easily employed, so just as in the past, if you can demonstrate H1B visa status, it will help--no change there. Given the potential limits on the number of H1B visas for MBA students, it will diminish the attractiveness of international students to US employers. For this reason, it might be more strategic to get the MBA degree closer to home.