Recently, a law school classmate of mine was informed that she did not win a spot in the H-1B lottery. She was devastated—in just an instant her life had been turned totally upside down. She had lived in the United States for close to 18 years and had made a life here. She had excelled in school, went on to graduate from Harvard Law School, and began working at one of the most prestigious law firms in the country. Despite all of this, she was informed that her current visa will end in July and, should nothing else happen in the interim, she would be forced to leave the country in July to return to her home country of Venezuela—a country she has not lived in since she was four years old.
She is one of many people who has recently been informed that they may soon be forced to leave the US. The H-1B lottery program is frequently heavily oversubscribed, and companies that had won H-1B slots in the lottery were informed of this on March 31. Shortly after March 31, tens of thousands of people found themselves in the same position as my classmate. She is not the only the law firm associate to face this problem in 2020, and there will inevitably be many more law firm associates that may find themselves in her position over the coming years.
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