In the Last Minutes!!! 怒涛の半日。
(日本語は英語の後です)
some of you might know that every year April 1st is the first day for Immigration Office (US Citizenship & Immigration Services) to receive new H-1B visa applications (professional work visa).
since April 1st of this year is Sunday, the first day would be 2nd.
for the Immigration Office to receive the packages on Monday, we (law offices, petitioners, applicants, etc.) need to send out the packages on Friday for overnight. yea Friday is today!!
our courier service picks up packages every late evening. but only for today, we asked them to come to pick up first packages in the morning.
you know why?
because some of our clients and their employers are really really really worried if their applications can be received by the Office in time.
the thing is that there is a cap (maximam number of applications the Office accepts for processing) every year, and the cap was reached only after 2 months last year.
that means… there were still so many foreigners who wanted to apply for H-1B visa but couldn’t even apply last year. because of that, there has been a rumor this year that the cap will be reached even earlier this year or even just a couple of days!!
looks like my boss started believing or at least considering the rumor and decided to send all new H-1B packages we’ve taken care of for the next morning delivery service!!! also he wanted the courier service company to pick up those packages earlier to make sure they’ll have enough time to deal with the delivery process.
as of yesterday evening (around 7pm), i still had a couple of packages to prepare including my own. (actually i was still waiting for the signed papers for those cases except for mine)
so, i decided to go to my work at 9 though my daily coming-in time is around 9:40.
yea it was the right decision i made!!!!
there were stuff coming up in the last minutes…..
man, it was crazy this morning. of course i wanted to get my own package done for the earliest group of packages. at the same time, i had to take care of other two cases (to be honest, these two were supposed to be done a lot earlier! if the employers did do things quickly…)
but oh well, it’s my job to make up for clients and employers….
the good thing was that the courier service didn’t come at the time we requested. yea they were delayed more than 30 minutes. that saved me!!!
sigh….
when my boss was checking and closing the packages, i received one more H-1B package from Fed Ex … i did finish preparing the whole package like 5 minutes! but unfortunately, that package didn’t make it on time for the earliest pick-up.
but that’s ok. we requested them to come to pick up second group in the evening, haha.
man, after the courier service picked up the first group of pachages, it was like after a big storm… i’m not exaggerating.
and thank god, this family of my client brought the signed forms early afternoon. they made it on time! i was so releaved. it was crazy for this case. client’s parents made inquiry and paid in the early March for the process. and i started contacting the company for necessary info. but this person never got back to me. i called and left message a couple of times, then i even called another person too. but for some reason i didn’t hear anything back from them for about 2 weeks.
finally i got to talk to this another person, which was this week… yea in the end i got the necessary info YESTERDAY! my boss and i tried our best and finished package to be ready for the employer to sign. but there was a problem. if we had used courier service, the package would have reached the employer today, the employer would send it back today so i’d get it on Monday earliest…
since we don’t want to take risk for not being able to make it in time for the cap, we suggested the client’s family to come to our office to pick up the package yesterday and return it today. yea sounds pretty crazy, rite? they don’t live or work too close. so at the beginning they weren’t planning to do that, but then they started being worried so decided to come.
i really felt bad and sorry for them. because.. u know i could have been more pushy toward the contact person of the company to do it first.
it’s good that they were pretty nice. and i did see their effort for their family member (the client is overseas). i bet this family is a pretty happy family:)
especially the client’s sibling did put so much effort this time. the client should be happy to have the person as a sibling:)
it kinda reminded me of my sister and brother. i would put lots of effort for them for their benefits and happiness. i guess that’s how older siblings would feel:)
anyway, this past couple of weeks were pretty busy for this H-1B stuff. i have no idea how fast the cap will be filled out. let’s see what will happen for this year.
keep the fingers cross;-)
英語でがぁ~~~書いたら日本語で書く元気があまり残ってませんw
要約すると、今日は就労ビザ?の新規申請受付開始日にパッケージが移民局に届くようにするための一番早い日でした。(日本語変・・・汗)
つまり、うちの事務所では準備するパッケージがいっぱい!朝からいつもより早くオフィスに行って、自分自身の申請も含めていくつかのパッケージの準備をせっせせっせ。ほんとギリギリになって突如浮上してくることってのはあるもので、マジ迷惑だったけど、なんとかしました。
パッケージを取りに来る業者が少し遅れたのがマジ救い。
疲れたよ~
てか、業者が来た後は、文字通り「嵐の後の静けさ」(あ、それを言うなら前かw)って感じでした。
とりあえず、今日送れるか心配してたクライアントの家族が昨日から色々手配を頑張って、なんとか今日間に合って、それが本当に良かった!!
全然私達のこと責めないし、私が「こんなギリギリになる結果になってしまってホントごめんなさい」って言ったら、「そんなの全然平気よ~。申請が許可されればいんだから!」って笑顔で。よかった~怖い人とかじゃなくて、にこやかな人達で。
はぁ、ここ数週間はうちのオフィスは大変だったよ~。
今年のビザ上限がいついっぱいになるのか誰も予想できないけど、多分去年よりも早いんじゃないかとのこと。おそらくね、去年あぶれた人がいっぱいいるから。
とりあえず、自分お疲れ様。
んで、自分の申請にも問題がないことを祈ろう!
今日から友達が数泊でNYから来るからいい気分転換になる♪
やっと春の陽気になってきたし、散歩いっぱいするぞぉ~~~☆



