The quota for H-1B visas, the primary visa used by United States companies to hire foreign professionals, is almost filled, with only some 2,000 openings remaining, Karen Weinstock, an Atlanta immigration attorney, told GlobalAtlanta on Dec. 3.

“Georgia employers who want to hire foreign-born professional workers should file their H-1B applications now before the current quota is maxed-out”, she said.

Ms. Weinstock, the managing attorney of the Atlanta office of the immigration law firm of Siskind Susser, cited U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sources, who told her that they are within 2,000 applications from reaching the 2010 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2010, which began on Oct. 1.

She anticipates that these 2,000 visas “will probably run out in the next week or two.”

Although Congress has mandated 65,000 per fiscal year, she said the number is close to 61,000 because about 4,000 visas are reserved for Chilean and Singaporean nationals under U.S. free trade agreements with their countries.

Ms. Weinstock added that “even in a recession, where we saw less filings compared with previous years, many occupations in the sciences, engineering and medicine are still at a shortage, and this low cap limits U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace. The system’s overhaul is long overdue.”

She may be reached by phone at (770) 913-0800 or email at kweinstock@visalaw.com.

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