A lot has happened since our last General US Immigration update in November.

1. The Green Card Lottery DV-2011 ended on November 30. During the initial week over 900,000 entries were received which was a 63% jump compared to last year and the Department of State expects 13 million entries to be the approximate total at the end.
2. The Green Card Lottery DV-2010 have begun to enter the country and many are still receiving their 2nd letter and starting to go to their US Consulate Interviews
3. The H-1B visa program for FY2010 that was extended into the new US Immigration year has picked up greatly with the latest USCIS quota update stating that 62,500 petitions have now been received in addition to the 20,000 advanced degree exemption. This means there is only 2,500 visas potentially left.
4. US Immigration reform is still expected to be debated in the US Congress in 2010, however health care reform would have to finish up completely before it could start in any meaningful way.

December is usually a quieter month for Immigration news with so many holidays but given the swarm of additional questions and comments on the site in the last 3 weeks, I definitely encourage you to continue searching for a job in the US as there is definitely a lot more hiring now and it could be a good time to get set up leading into 2010.

CJ