Additional Entry - New info!!

PLEASE IGNORE ALL DATES GENERATED BY THE BLOGSITE AS THAT IS THE ONLY WAY I CAN MAKE THE SITE READ FROM TOP TO BOTTOM I have just found out (thanks Manohar!) that there are certain states that will give you a reduced internship if you score a higher mark on your FPGEE®. If I had known that I might have bloody-well revised a bit. Anyway, below I copy the hours related to the FPGEE® score for the Washington Foreign Graduate Pharmacy Internship, as it is currently listed on their website (this may change, don't rely on me, check for yourself, etc). Score Intern Hours 75-90 1500—at least 1200 hours must be earned prior to the examinations 91-105 1000—at least 800 hours must be earned prior to the examinations 106-120 500—all hours must be earned prior to the examinations Over 120 300—all hours must be earned prior to the examinations Taken from: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/hpqa1/HPS4/Pharmacy/Documents/PharmacistForeignGraduate.pdf So check the state board where you are aiming to work, and see if there is any benefit if you do get a really good passing mark. And again, thanks Manohar for bringing this to my attention. And if anyone else has any corrections or additional bits of information I can add to the blog PLEASE TELL ME - things change, and I'm only human! Just as a little aside, the "registered trademark" sign in between H1B and Lottery in the name of this blog is not necessary, but I was contacted by the NABP® and told in no uncertain terms to delete three chat groups I had set up to "discuss" the FPGEE® and CPJE®/MPJE® and told to put a ® sign whenever their name appears. In response to their request I have deleted the chat groups and started to place the ® sign thoughout the blogs as I re-read them and edit them, but for the sake of conformity in my blog titles I thought I'd add an extra one in there where it doesn't really have to go. Sorry if this bores you, but being chased down by the NABP® just adds yet another level of sparkle to my otherwise shining story :-) Farmacyst

THE STORY SO FAR.

This Blog is the follow on from my first blog at fpgee-test.blogspot.com which tells the story of how I managed to take and pass the FPGEE, an exam for non-American pharmacists to show equivalency to American pharmacy students, prior to starting their post-college education. As you can read on the fpgee-test blogsite, passing wasn't all that difficult for me, although I can assure you it was no easy matter being allowed to sit the exam, as the paperwork to prove my equivalency was quite horrendously onerous. Anyway, that's all behind me now, thank goodness. And this blog tells the story of what comes next. As the name of the blog suggests - and chances are that is why you are reading this - what comes next ends up becoming a pathway leading to obtaining an H1B sponsor. I was SO naive of the process when I started on this path it is only fare that I warn you now that this is a very difficult path, and in my opinion it is weighed very much against the numbers of people that sit the FPGEE exam that don't have a Social Security Number and/or a work permit or green card and have no idea how difficult it is going to be to get a visa by the H1B route. Hopefully, by the time you read the whole of this blog you will be more aware of the very small chance of success that foreign pharmacists actually have of getting to America. And just to explain the last part of the process first, once you do get to America as an intern, there are still two more sets of exams to take to become a fully qualified Registered Pharmacist (R.Ph), namely the Naplex and the MPJE (Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination), but more on the specifics of those exams in later blogs! The next post will explain the crazy conversations I have had with various people and organisations to try and work out what you're supposed to do with the FPGEE certificate once you have it! Farmacyst

Have FPGEE® will iBT TOEFL® next...

So, I sat back and enjoyed the moment, having passed the first hurdle to becoming an American pharmacist. I had passed the FPGEE®. I knew what I had to do next, which was to take and pass the required proof of English reading, listening and writing - called the iBT-TOEFL® test. From the paperwork the NABP® posted out with their original information it was quite clear that this test was a basic requirement for ALL non-US pharmacists, even if they were from an English speaking country. The NABP® would not send out their FPGEC® certificate unless they had received the TOEFL® result, which is sent direct from TOEFL® to NABP® using code 9103 whilst signing up for the TOEFL®. I should add this number may change in the future so please don't take my word for it that it is the correct or current number. It was when I took the test though! I didn't think I needed to revise for the test, or even look up on the internet what it entailed. I am English aren't I! What a mistake. I was at the test centre as requested 30 minutes before the start time of 12 noon. I went in and met a friendly assortment of people who all had fairly strong foreign accents. I felt a bit embarrassed being there, but on the other hand I felt confidant I would pass. We filled out a waiver, similar to the one we signed at the FPGEE® saying we would not, on pain of death and eternal damnation ever reveal what goes on behind the secretive closed doors of the iBT-TOEFL®. Signed and dated we were lead to another room where we had our various identifications confirmed. I had my passport in hand. And thence to the exam room (after one last run to the loo!). I should add at this point that I believed for some reason, the exam lasted one and a half hours. At this point I was advised it lasted between four and five hours. And I was hungry. I take my seat and put on a set of head-phones. There is a voice test to check the sound level and then another waiver and off we go. I shant go in to the specifics of the exam of course, but the first two hours involved a combination of listening through the head-phones, reading and watching things on the console, and then answering multiple choice questions. It was all fairly easy although it required focus. If you lost concentration you could easily forget something important. I remained focused! After 2 hours the computer allowed you a 10 minute break. I went to the loo and got ready for round two. Speaking. This was a little embarassing, as us Brits are not so keen to talk into microphones in a room full of strangers, but I braved it for the greater good. After another sound check I was asked to speak for a minute on a particular subject. It's not that easy speaking about something for a whole minute. I was talking nonsense by the end I am sure. I should have looked in to the format of this test a bit more! Having now become familiar with the process the next verbal section was much better. I made notes, wrote a bit about what I was to say, and spoke slowly and clearly until the time ran out. Better! I could hear the guy two seats down from me do his spoken section a little later. He had said it was his weakness. He was right. All he said was errrrrr and ummmmm and hesitated a lot, and he was very, errr, accented. I hope he passed but I wouldn't hold my breath for him. Even my first response was better than his, but I wasn't nervous or stuttering along I suppose. I just spoke. Anyway we eventually come to the written section which was really tough. First they give you something to listen to and something to read and you have to write a precis of the two giving you opinion as to which is correct. Sounds easy, but isn't so straightforward and requires some thinking. I should point out that ALL the examples used in the test were of a scientific nature. The subject matter is of course irrelevant to your use of English, but it did make the test very interesting for me, and perhaps kept me more alert than if the test had been on Music or Art. And finally the test ended with two large freestyle writing sections (typing not hand-written). The last one was slightly longer and slightly more complex. I kept deleting and re-writing sections. I was half-way through re-writing a sentence when the screen was blocked by a box declaring the test had finished! Then there was an opportunity to scrap the result and NOT have it sent to any 3rd parties you may have wanted the result to be forwarded to and that included yourself! So if you absolutely knew you had messed up bigtime I guess you could save yourself from some embarrassment; but as far as I was concerned I just didn't want to accidentally press the wrong button! I was the first to finish from the group and the test had taken me 4 hours and 20 minutes. I was exhausted and starving. Blimey. Once step further along though... Farmacyst ***Addendum*** Thanks go to a kind colleague who has allowed me to pass on the following information: The first time I took the exam my scores were: R=17 L=23 S=27 W=28. After 6 months, I took the exam again and got: R=23 L=27 S=24 W=24. The first time I took the exam, I was surprised with my score in Reading so I emailed them asking if I can request for that Section be re-scored. They said they can only re-score the Speaking & Writing Sections of the exam. So, the second time I sat the exam I requested for a re-scoring of the Speaking Section only, which cost $60, and on the re-score now got a score of 28 in Speaking. The fee was returned as soon as they posted my new score. If I wanted a recount of the Writing Section as well, that would have been another $60! If you honestly think that you did better than the scores you received, then don't hesitate to request for re-scoring. --- So, unlike the FPGEE® which in my opinion is never worth having re-scored, it seems that not only is this VERY worthwhile getting re-scored if you think you did better than the score they gave you, but it also seems that if you are correct and they did underscore you, then they are even kind enough to return your fee! ***

iBT TOEFL® RESULT!!

The NABP® states {here} the (current) requirements for passing the TOEFL® as: To be eligible for FPGEC® Certification, you must pass the TOEFL® iBT or both the TOEFL® and TSE®. The minimal acceptable score for the TOEFL® iBT is: Reading – 21 Listening – 18 Speaking – 26 Writing – 24 You must complete all four sections in one testing session; scores for the four sections must be reported on one official score report. If you score less than the minimum score in any section, you will not be considered for FPGEC® Certification. If you take the TOEFL® and TSE®, the following scores must be obtained: TOEFL® – 550 (paper-based) or 213 (computer-based) TSE® – 50 If you score less than the minimum score on either the TOEFL® or the TSE®, you will not be considered for FPGEC® Certification. -- So the results are through 2 whole days early! Good on you TOEFL® people. And here's what they gave me:

Test Date	Reading	Listening	Speaking	Writing	Total
February 10, 2007	30	29	29	30	118

And please remember I am born, bred and educated in England, so that 29/30 for speaking I find somewhat irritating :-) Should I ask for a recount? Anyway, another hurdle in time, money and energy overcome. Next comes the FPGEC® certificate from the NABP® and then I can apply to the Florida state board of pharmacy for a (I think this is right) "Foreign Graduate Internship" deficiency letter. Well, actually thats not quite true - I am applying for an Internship Certificate, but I can't get one as I don't have a USA Social Security number. I can't get an SSN until someone gives me a job and applies for an H1B visa on my behalf (the timing of which is CRITICAL - and will be discussed in another blog entry soon) - and then I can give the SSN to the Florida State Board of Pharmacy who can then issue me with a full licence to work in a pharmacy and do the hours required, sit the NAPLEX® and the MPJE® and finally, one day, become a fully licensed US pharmacist, with a US work visa and eventually a US Green Card!! Eventually. Farmacyst.

A long long time later.....

Ok, so I get my FPGEC certificate about 6 weeks after taking the iBT-TOEFL test, and immediately contact the Florida State board to request a deficiency letter. Beautiful. Everything seems to be going to plan. I receive the deficiency letter (that was probably back in about April 2007? - Can I remind you the dates on this blog are nonsense as you cant get them to appear in reverse date order, so I just picked Dec 31st and each new post I enter has the preceding date, but is a meaningless date in respect of the timeline of my story here). So, where was I. I have the FPGEC and now I have the Florida deficiency letter. Now what? Well, now I need a job! If at this point you have an American wife/husband simply walk in to Walmarts, go up to the pharmacy counter and ask for a job. You can then fill out some forms, collect your name badge, and start working away on your intern hours. If at this point you don't have an American husband/wife, and therefore DONT have an American Social Security Number (SSN) you can tie your legs around your neck and twist them till the blood stops reaching your brain, because there's a heap of problems waiting for you. To put it simply, you need a job, but you can't get a job without an SSN, and you can't get an SSN without a job. The easiest answer is to go to the big chains like Rite Aid, Walgreens, Walmart, Eckerd, Albertsons, Longs or CVS (later I will show just how many visa's each of these managed to obtain in the 2007 lottery). They are used to dealing with foreign graduates and have special departments set up for it. Some other smaller companies do too, but they obtain very very few H1B visas. So I emailed CVS and Walmart back in April 2007, to tell them I have an FPGEC and a state deficiency letter, and guess what their response was? Walmart: PLEASE CONTACT US AGAIN IN NOVEMBER CVS: PLEASE CONTACT US IN EARLY 2008. Fan-dibbly-tastic. So, after everything I've gone through, I now have to sit back, wait for another group of FPGEE'rs to pass their exams and catch up with me (I'm not bitter, everyone deserves to get through) and then wait until either November or next January just to find out if these chains are even interested in me. Great. So I sit, and I wait. Tick tock. In the interim I have spoken with LOADS of people. Friends. Friends of friends. Strangers. Strangers friends. Random weirdos. Anyone really. And I have learnt a great deal of stuff. One area I have investigate but never needed was the possibility of doing a higher degree (masters or PhD) from a US University. This gives the benefit of a 1-year post degree work permit, which can therefore be used to do an internship and escape the H1B lottery rush, although I note that in 2008 that even this route was over-subscribed so not a 100% guarantee. And there is also another route which involves working for a voluntary organisation, or hospital or Government department, which I also believe somehow circumvents the H1B route. As I say, I'm not particularly familiar with these other routes, but I believe they may well be of interest to some of you reading this, and would love to update this blog with more info on these other options, so please email me! In my next entry I shall write more about the specifics of the H1B visa. Good luck everyone, Farmacyst.

And then it got painful...

OK friends, I know some of you have been waiting a LONG time for this update, so I hope you enjoy it - trust me, every minute of the last year has been a hellish roller-coaster ride of agony, ecstasy, fear and expense. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin.... Just a very short precis, I had passed my FPGEE, passed by iBT-TOEFL, received my FPGEC certificate, applied and received my Florida deficiency letter, and had the rest of the year free to find an employer willing to sponsor me for an H1B application. Good, and if you recall both Walmart's and CVS's autoresponders asked me (in April 2007) to contact them at the very end of 2007 or early 2008. I also started to talk to people, on the net and through friends, who had experience of US internships. Some, if they are to be believed, appear to have some horror stories that are quite frightening. I heard of "pharmacy graduates" doing nothing but filling trays with meds for a whole year and never seeing a computer or a customer. I heard of "pharmacy graduates" on wages that waitresses would refuse. And I heard of "pharmacy graduates" in care home settings that don't really dispense medication, never see prescriptions and have to sell their soul to the devil for a few years after qualifying before being released from their chains. I have also heard of Pharmacy Graduates who earn very very good incomes (well over $60,000 whilst training) and are throughly trained, and have excellent terms, conditions, perks and benefits. So be careful who you go to people, there are good and bad employers out there. The net result of about 6-months of chit chat was basically, in total, and when you look good and hard at it, about nothing. I got to October 2007 with the same two email addresses for CVS and Walmarts to contact, and not a lot else to show for my efforts. Near the end of October 2007 I emailed both CVS and Walmarts. Walmarts auto-responder will always say "thanks for calling, we'll contact you in 7 days". I got that, and after 7 days I got nothing else. CVS I had already obtained the area recruiters direct email address back in May (I have kept these emails - and I recommend you all do to - keep them ALL, the positive one's, the negative one's and the one's that don't answer - because 6 months later when you want to make contact you'll want to remember which one's were positive towards you, etc). So anyway, I actually ended up phoning the area recruiter for Florida (her title to be correct is Manager, Professional and College Relations,CVS Caremark - whoever/whatever they are). We had a good chat, and I left it that she would direct me to the actual manager for the area I wanted to live in, for me to arrange an interview directly. Tick, tock, tick, tock. November, and I contact Walmart. Auto-responder still on. I contact my "friend" at CVS and say I haven't heard from the local man. She eventually gets him to communicate with me via email and I am starting to think about a trip to Florida to meet up for an interview. End of November and I chat on the phone with the CVS Pharmacy Supervisor. Again this goes well and I am starting to look in the calendar for a chance to take a weeks break (obviously just after Christmas/New Year) to have an interview. -- Interlude: I have since spoken with many foreign graduates who have been interviewed over the phone. I couldn't possibly say whether it was in my interest to meet up in person or not, but it does seem to me now, that my perceived need to go and meet them in person was not as essential as is actually the case. But I wanted a holiday too, so what the hell. -- And then, as if by magic, come December, the lines of communication with my contact shut down. I can't get him to answer an email. I email the original contact. nothing. I email Walmarts: You will be contacted in 7 days. I email Walmarts again, with a simple question: Are you sponsoring H1B's in 2008? I get a response! "Please contact us in January 2008". Fantastic. I once more email the original CVS contact and ask her if they are sponsoring H1B's? I had had a horrible feeling that perhaps the pharmacy chains had decided to shut shop on the H1B lottery for the year as a kind of dispute against the expense they are forced to bear. -- interlude: The H1B application fee must, by law, must be paid for by the sponsor. They can either be applied for as a regular petition or, for an extra $1,000 can be premium processed, which means the results are offered (as a yes or a no) within 15 days from the close of the annual H1B window. The overall costs (see http://www.newh1.com/newh1b_pricing.html for the facts as I know them, are around $3,000 for regular and around $4,000 per premium petition - so no cheap affair. I am also aware that at least one of the most well-known chains demands their foreign applicants to pay the $1,000 for premium processing, even though I am not completely sure they are legally entitled to ask for this, but I guess they know the laws better than little old me) -- Anyway, finally the "Manager, Professional and College Relations,CVS Caremark" - responds to me:

Unfortunately we aren't able to offer you a position for this coming year. We do sponsor visas and will be in 2008, but we have reached our quota of how many we will be offering for Florida.

Gulp. Spit. Punch. I immediately go beserk with activity on the internet. I Google for every flipping pharmacy chain small and large, up and down the length and breadth of America. I send my resume to any pharmacist fool enough to put their email on the internet. I literally email anyone and everyone I can find, specifically mentioning I am looking for an H1B sponsor. -- Interlude: If you don't tell them you need an H1B you will get hundreds of responses, but they will all eventually come to nothing. So save yourself the agony, and tell them the truth first, so they can be honest back, and say they don't want you, and save you both a lot of emails. The only other advise is that wherever they are, tell them that is exactly where you want to be! -- By mid December, from all my emails, I had 3 responses. A New York based company say they are not taking on H1B's this year, but wish me good luck. A regional manager for a South Eastern Chain store offers me some hope. And a chap in California also offers me some hope. Walmart's are still offering to contact me in 7 Days. Next up, the fruit of all my hard labours! Good luck to all, Farmacyst.

No Pain = No Gain

So its mid December 2007, a full year after I sat my FPGEE, and I've got nothing sorted. I have a tenuous contact in California and another in Florida to keep my hopes alive, plus a friendly auto-responser from Walmarts and a total blank piece of paper where the rest of America is supposed to be. This is NOT looking like I was expecting it to look at this point. However, things were to pick up. I email the Florida contact and tell her I will be in Florida in late January and could we meet up? She says YES! I then email the California contact and tell him I will be in California in late January and could we meet up? And he says YES! Cool - 2 for 2. I discuss dates with my wife, tell her she's going to stay at home and look after the 3 kids, and that I am going to go to Florida, and Los Angeles (and maybe, if I can find the time, a quick trip to Las Vegas!). So I decide the dates for my trip, take the plunge and book the various flights, and hire cars for Florida and LA, and book the hotel in Boca - I leave off booking the hotel in LA for the minute because I don't know when my interview will be, so I might get a chance to drive across to Las Vegas. The Florida contact confirms the date and time of the meeting as my hotel at 12 noon on the Friday of my trip. I give the LA contact my dates in LA and he chooses to meet at my hotel at 7am on the last morning of my trip - absolute perfection as this gives me 4 nights in Las Vegas - awesome! OK, everything is suddenly back on track and Walgreens are still on auto-bloody-response. Finally the time comes to make the trip, and I kiss the wife and kids goodbye and head off to meet my destiny. Next entry: The interviews!

PLEASE GO DOWN A BIT AND CLICK ON OLDER POSTS

(Remember the timing on these posts are all meaningless as it is impossible to get them to list entries in reverse order otherwise). Farmacyst.

The Interviews: part 1

I shan't bore you with the details of my holiday, but I will share with you that it involved me staying up till 4am the night before my interview and a meeting with a bank manager just before my interview, where I managed to drive to the wrong branch, and then when I did get to the right branch the stupid idiot kept me waiting for 15 minutes whilst he was alone in his office doing nothing; and then when he did see me he managed to cancel my check card instead of authorising it, which delayed me even more. But thankfully I managed to get back to the hotel, have a shower, get dressed in suit and tie, and be sitting casually in the lobby with my Blackberry and my resume by about a quarter to 12, looking cool and none the worse for my very late night. 12 O'Clock. 12.05 12.10 12.15 Bloody hell where is she? I have her email on my Blackberry so I send her a casual email.

"hi there, I'm here, are you coming, call me!"

sort of email. Nothing. I email my wife (6pm in London). Can she go on my computer and find an old email from this lady because I know its got her cell number on it. I google the number for the local pharmacy of the chain and give them a call. Do they know the number for my contact? No. Do they have a number for their local Pharmacy Recruiter? They do and I call and leave a message. Then my wife emails me the number. Then I get an email back from the first one I sent to the lady which goes something like

"Dear Steven, stuck somewhere else, have contacted local recruiter who will interview you, he will be in touch!".

Hmmm.. well, I'm in pro-active mood now so I make an assumption that if her email is x.y@ then his will be a.b@ so I send him an email introducing myself, giving the hotels number and my room number, and I go upstairs and email my wife. 10 minutes later I get the call. Yes, he's very local, yes, he's happy to meet me, yes, he'll be here in 20 minutes. I go back down to the lobby with my resume and Blackberry and try to look casual. In he comes, big smile, shake hands, sit down. He says that because all the American graduates want to go to live in places like Boca once they graduate, he has never seen a foreign pharmacy graduate before. The plan is to talk about my resume, he'll tell me about the company, and then he'll report to the original lady. Luckily I have a fairly interesting resume. I've done a lot more than just be a pharmacist, and within pharmacy I've done a lot more than just manage branches, so not only did we have a lot to talk about, he was genuinely interested in it too! Then as promised he told me about the company, and the reasons i might want to work there. I should add that before he had turned up I had already found out when the company began and how many stores it currently had over what an area, so I could (and did) impress him with my obvious knowledge in the company - do YOUR homework people!! --interlude: For a non American professional to get an H1B visa over a US citizen it must be proven that no US citizen wants that job. The employer is therefore required to post sufficient signs in certain places stating the details of the offered job, and details of the foreign graduate who is applying for it should no one American come forward (or so I believe). Therefore, I now understand that I probably made a fatal mistake in my original application with CVS in stating my preferred area as Boca Raton, Florida - where every rich kids goes for the summer, and every graduate pharmacist wants to be. Either be vague and say "anywhere in Florida" or find out exactly where a company needs pharmacists and mention those places specifically. -- The interview must have gone well because at the end the man said as far as he was concerned he was very happy to tell my recruiter that she should go ahead any take me, and we shook hands, and I emailed my wife the delayed, but eventually good news. Next up, California. Farmacyst

The Interviews: Part 2

For California, the contact has been very clever and had faxed me a long list of things I had to fill out with required paperwork. This had included a Californian deficiency letter, (if you recall I had already got a Florida one)- but to get an intern license in California they required far more information, and most specifically they required a finger print analysis to be taken. The interviewer had also told me WHERE the job related to, so my wife and I had done a thorough investigation of that town too. The way the trip worked out, I had landed at LA on Saturday night, got in a hire car and driven directly to Las Vegas (thank God for Satellite Navigation). And then after 3 nights there I left Las Vegas at exactly 7am on the Wednesday morning and drove directly to the town where we had been told the job offer was for so I could have a good nose around - which i arrived at around 10.30am. In this town I went for a little drive. Got some realtor leaflets, got a coffee, and then sneaked in to the pharmacy store itself. I asked if I could speak to the pharmacist but she was busy, so I spoke with the intern there, which was actually better. I told her that I was looking to be a foreign graduate intern for the company and asked if she thought they were they a good company to work for, did they train her, did they offer benefits, and a hundred other questions that I could only really ask her and not ask in an interview. Should she by any chance read this, I would like to thank her for her kind and very useful assistance. I then went to the local UPS store where you can get your fingerprints taken, and they send the info directly off to the Pharmacy Board which ticked off the last box on my California intern/deficiency application. I then went shopping, drove to my hotel, had some dinner, watched an excellent episode of "Family Guy" and went to bed having ordered a 6am wake up call. Up at 6am, shower and get out the suit and tie, and head downstairs to the lobby to meet and greet. As it happens there is free coffee so I pour myself one whilst I'm waiting. Sip, sip, sip. (You know that horrible feeling when you experienced something before....!). About 7.05am and a thin young chap ask if I am me, which I am glad to say I am, and he introduces himself as my interviewer. Decision number 1: Do I take the coffee with me? No. Decision number 2: Do I just leave it on the table? hmmm...Yes. Sod it. I get my resume and Blackberry *everyone should have a Blackberry* and we go round the corner where it is quieter. Again we go through my resume and again I think I am impressing him. Then somehow, after about 45 minutes the subject drifts on to how much the pay is, what the benefits are, how many hours per week, how many days off per year, how many unpaid days off, minimum hours to maintain benefits, and although I'm learning a great deal I am sensing I am asking too many questions about the wrong thing here. Then he says to me that he is interviewing a lot of people for just one post, although there may be positions available nearby. If I were interviewing someone and I told them I had a lot more people to interview it would be my way of letting them know politely they hadn't got the job. We shook hands and parted company. Bollocks. Where had it all gone wrong? I had thought we were having a great interview for the best part of an hour, and then suddenly in the last ten minutes I felt I lost it. Well, nothing I could do now, but email the wife and post the license application just in case. So I check out of the hotel, and stop off on the way to the airport to have a cashiers check made out to the California State Board of Pharmacy for $65.00 as it very clearly says on the form I had downloaded and had with me, and attached the check to the paperwork and closed the envelope and drove to the airport. Apparently, since 9/11, there are no longer any mail boxes at airports, so the application form came back to England with me. I finally posted it on the first week of February 2008, even though I didn't feel it was likely that I was going to get any joy from my Californian adventure. But I did have a REALLY great time in Las Vegas, although it was much more expensive than it had been 8 years ago when I was last there. Next up: The good goes bad, the bad goes good, and the whole thing turns upside down! Farmacyst

The good goes bad, the bad goes good, and the whole thing turns upside down!

Time for a quick reminder of the situation: Its early February 2008 now and I have returned from my trip to America where I managed to have an interview in Florida which appears to have been successful and an interview in California which I felt has not turned out so well, but I had sent off $65 and the paperwork for a California deficiency letter just in case. I then emailed the contact in Florida and asked her for confirmation that the H1B application was going to go ahead, and if there was anything else she needed from me, and also where, exactly, the job offer was for. I also sent an email to the Californian contact saying how wonderful it was to meet him, and how excited I was about the company and hoped that he would put me forward for an H1B. -- Interlude: Timing is very very critical with H1B's. They have a limit to how late you can apply and any received after the deadline are discarded, as the numbers submitted during the window of opportunity far exceed the quota. As stated previously, last year there were 65,000 visa's available and after just 2 days there had already been 123,480 applications. So on face value it would appear to be around a 50:50 chance. This comment requires some further discussion, but that will be explained shortly. -- The Florida company then sent me an email from someone higher up in the company who sent me a list of about 8 required items. I had all of those at hand (well, my good wife did) so I sent them (all were copies of the originals) by post the very next day. It turned out that the job offer was for somewhere hundreds of miles away from our original target of Boca, and on further investigation my wife and I decided that should that be where I ended up doing my internship, I would live there, but my wife and kids would stay in Boca until I qualified. At this point I heard nothing from California. Current scores on the doors: Florida 1: California 0 -- Interlude: The date for filing H1B's is quoted as being April 1st. In the information I had read at that point I had always noted that the quota was exceeded on the first day, and therefore assumed that applications received after the 1st would be too late. -- By mid February 2008 I was all but ready to give up on the Californian hopes, and the bloody Walmart's stupid auto-non-responder was still offering me nothing more than a promise of a communication in 7 days, so all my eggs were firmly in my Florida basket when suddenly, out of the blue, my contact from California sends me an email which says something like:

"Hi Steven, thank you for being so patient. We are now at the end of our interview period. We would like to put you forward for an H1B visa and ask if it would be alright to process you in two neighbouring counties to increase your chances of success".

Hold the press! Stop the execution! They've gone from no chance to TWO CHANCES!!! I reply that they are welcome to put in as many applications in as they want to, and thank them for their kindness in the offer. Score on the doors: Florida 1: California 2 The California company now also asked me to send them load of documents, far more than Florida did, but all of which I was able to produce (thanks to my super-efficient wife) immediately, apart from the deficiency letter. On March 3rd 2008 I got a letter from the California Pharmacy Board which said that unfortunately they couldn't process my application as the check I had sent them was for $65 but the fee was $75 and if I wanted them to process my application I would need to send them another $10. Oh, for goodness sake, just when I thought this was in the bag. And I know for sure the fee was $65 on the form because both I and the bank clerk had read the amount from the form that I had with me. The only thing I can think of is that I had downloaded the form in December and they had sneakily put their fees up in January. Luckily we have a dollar account so we sent them a check with a cover letter requesting they send the deficiency letter directly to the lawyers acting on behalf of the company we were hoping to be employed by. There had been a slight delay in the sending of the check as my wife had been on a short shopping trip to New York (compensation for my Las Vegas trip) and I needed her to come back to sign the check as I wasn't sure the idiot bank manager had put me down as a signatory when I had met him in January, and I knew my wife was a signatory. So we probably posted the check around 12th March - remember the deadline of April 1st was VERY fast approaching. Tick, tock, tick, tock. I get an email from the Florida company saying they have filed something called an LCA. And I even get an official letter through the post saying the same. So what's an LCA? Well, its a labour conditions agreement, and apparently its a pre-requisite to filing the H1B. I'd never heard of it, but I hadn't seen one from the Californian team, so started to feel anxious about them again. Scores on the doors: Florida 2: California 2. I then got emailed a rather lengthy legal agreement from the Californian company, which included all the agreed hours, wages whilst training and when qualified, sign-on bonus and rules regarding the bonus, benefits, holiday entitlements and so forth. All very legal and all appearing to be very acceptable. I was required to print, sign and post back. Ok, so where was the Florida legal agreement then? I didn't have a clue how much they would be paying me, how much holiday time, what benefits they would be including or anything. Scores on the doors: Florida 2: California 3. -- Interlude: There is absolutely nothing wrong with filing more than one H1B application (obviously, since one company may file more than one application per potential employee), and therefore there is also nothing wrong with having more than one employer put more than one application in on your behalf. However, I am a fairly religious man, and I feel absolutely guilt-ridden with fear that should I get more than one application to go through to petition (even though this is of course my hope) that I may actually get more than one offer and will have to somehow tell one of these companies that I appreciate all their efforts but will have to decline! I would feel terrible. But on the other hand I want to make as sure as possible that I do at least get one successful H1B, so what can I do? -- So in essence the Florida application is all set although I haven't received an contract, and coming to the very end of March and the laywers from California tell me they still haven't received the bloody deficiency letter. So next I phone the California Pharmacy Board and ask them what's happening. Apparently they say they have received the check and it looks like the deficiency letter is about to be sent, but the girl that does it is off today so try again on Monday. We ask if a note could be left on her desk to send it as soon as possible, thank you very much. Scores on the doors: Florida:2 California 4 My wife and I are not normally the type of people that worry and panic, but this deficiency letter was really getting us frustrated. Over just $10, an out of date form, a missing mail box at an airport, a badly timed holiday by my wife, and a staff members day off, the deadline was just a few days away and this was not looking good at all. I wrote a fairly terse email to the company and the law firm saying that the situation was ridiculous, that as far as I could see there was no requirement anywhere for the deficiency letter on the application form see http://www.immspec.com/h-1b-visa-document-list.htm, that I would pay them $1000.00 dollars to get in a taxi to the pharmacy board and pick it up by hand, or if necessary I would pay the full application fee of up to $10,000 for them to file the two applications without the deficiency letter (I was desperate remember)! I had a very calming letter back from the chief recruiter of the company saying that the requirement of a "license" on the list of requirements meant, in effect, a deficiency letter; and that although he would very much like to claim the $1000.00 reward for collection of the letter from the state board they (the Board) would only give it to the applicant him or herself so he couldn't do that, and that they therefore couldn't file without the deficiency letter. AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhh. Scores on the doors: Florida 100: California 0 March 29st - reliably informed by staff at the California pharmacy board that the deficiency letter was posted on Thursday 27th March. How long does it take to send a letter in California for goodness sake? Again I contact the lawyers and the company - any news? Any luck? Is there anything anyone can do? Why does the post take so long? Answered saying that a letter posted on Thursday could actually mean the Friday and that a normal letter can take 3-5 working days to be delivered. Hold on a second. In England if you post a letter from one end of the country, by second class mail, the worst it can ever take to be delivered is 2-3 days. How can a letter that has to go no more than 100 miles take 3 -5 days, WHEN I NEED IT TO TAKE 3. This is so surreal, so annoying, so depressing. April 1st. Bugger. So that's that then. Just the one application in. Part of me is relieved because I now know the where, and the who, and wont have to face that fear of getting multiple offers and having to let one company down. April 2nd. I thought I'd look on the immigration website to see if they had declared the quota full already. Here's a link to the USCIS website I looked at. From that site I quote:

if USCIS receives a sufficient number of petitions to satisfy the cap at any time during the first five business days on which petitions for the upcoming fiscal year may be received, all cap-subject petitions received during the first five business days will be included in the random-selection lottery

Did you see, did you spot it? First >>>>>>5<<<<< business days!!!! So that means the books still open, the games gone in to extra time, there's still some hope. Actually, there's still quite a lot of hope... Today is Thursday April 3rd 2.18am - in the USA its close of business on Wednesday 2nd April, and I haven't heard from the lawyers that they've received my deficiency letter, but I can now comfortably hang on for 4 more days and surely, SURELY, they'll have received it by then?! -- interlude: I forgot to mention another saga with the Californian company over another of their requirements that the Florida team never requested or mentioned. Its called a credentials evaluation and it has to be carried out by the ECE who work, amongst others, closely with the NABP for submitting proofs of authentication for sitting the FPGEE test. Anyway, this all-important Credentials Evaluation was apparently another must-have (for them), and was carried out by the ECE on a promise of a 5-day turnaround, which, thank goodness, they managed to do. The issue being that when I sat my FPGEE it was before the ECE had started carrying out the evaluations, and hence it had to be done for the first time for me whereas later exam takers would have already got this evaluation paperwork. -- So, my blog is as up to date as it possibly could be. I am waiting to see what the Californian postman brings to the lawyers door tomorrow, and see if I can change those scores on the doors one last and final time. Walmart did finally sent me an email on about the 20th March requesting I send them the standard 10 or so documents to be considered for an H1B sponsorship. Well, I had the papers anyway, so I sent them off. April 3rd today, and guess what? I haven't heard anything from them! Tick, tock, tick, tock.... Farmacyst

And as the final bell rang...

At 2.53am UK time, on the 4th April 2008, I finally got the email I had been waiting for, that my California sponsor had received the deficiency letter from the California State Board of Pharmacy, and that they had duly filed the petitions for me, in two neighbouring counties in California, thus giving me a total of 3 H1B applications going in to the lottery. Ok, so lets talk about the lottery a bit more. What do we know about it? Well, last year, there was a total number of 65,000 H1B's, of which 58,200 were genuinely available, and 6,800 visas were set aside during the fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool can be made available for H-1B use with start dates beginning on October 1, 2007, the start of FY 2008. USCIS has added 5,800, the projected number of unused H-1B1 Chile/Singapore visas to the FY 2008 H-1B cap. Ok, I don't know what that means either, but it comes from a page on the USCIS website here. What's more interesting, and easier to understand, from the same link (here) is that in 2007 the H1B quota was filled on Monday April 2nd. So when the last post, this year, is received on the 5th working day of April, one would assume it will be well over the limit, but I cannot find any reliable information that states by how much it was over-applied last year. The nearest I have seen is from here and says:

USCIS reportedly received a record number of H-1B filings – 150,000 as of the afternoon of Monday, April 2 2007, far in excess of available numbers. Accordingly, a significant percentage of filed cases will not be selected in the lottery. Cap-subject H-1B petitions that are not randomly selected are to be rejected and returned along with the filing fees. Cap-subject H-1B petitions that are received by USCIS after April 3, 2007 will also be rejected and returned. USCIS has indicated that, due to the large volume of filings, it will be several weeks before the cap selection process can be completed.

Obviously it is slightly different this year as they are definitely keeping the doors open until the 5th working day of April, but beyond that I would imagine numbers would be similar. So what would anyone like to guess at? 200,000 or maybe 250,000 for the 65,000 (or is it 58,200?) places? {These figures are corrected later as the information came out} I can also see from the above that rejected applications have their filing fees returned, so I can see why some companies are filing multiple applications {this facility was changed by law before the April 2008 Lottery took place so that multiple filings did not get their fees returned}. On the other hand, there are further plans (repeat PLANS) to increase or somehow change the quota next year, that might make it a bit easier to get an H1B (I will report more if I read anything for sure). Ok, so lets say 200,000 H1B's are applied for. How many of those are for people like myself with multiple entries? I have 3 applications and I can only accept one place. I know other pharmacists that have multiple applications. Have the financial services boys cottoned on? Have the lawyers and doctors realised too? Are there actually only 65,000 applications, but the system has spooked everyone into playing silly games? Maybe not, but I can tell you there are a lot less people applying than the "total" number of applications put in! Next, and this is pure conjecture on my part so don't take my word for it, but I don't believe the randomised lottery is totally ransomised. I have thought this through and I am absolutely certain that the first thing that USCIS do is divide the entrants in to their professions. Otherwise, with a truly random lottery, you might get years where everyone who gets a job is in the I.T. industry and not a single pharmacist got through. So divide the entrants in to careers first. What about area? Is it any good if 65,000 people turn up in New York City on October 1st and the rest of the country is drained of all their professional needs? No, I don't think so. So career, and area, and then what about those that are fast tracked compared to those that aren't? We know the net result of the extra fee is that the fast-tracked applications are replied to quickly, but are they the sole pool for the first round draw? Hmmm....tough one this, but I'm going to say, for fairness, that I think that the total number of fast tracked successful candidates is approximately equal to the number of slow-tracked applicants. So if there were 100 applicants for 20 places, and 50 were fast-tracked and 50 were not, then I think that 10 places would go to the fast track and 10 to the slow. But who knows? -- Interlude: I now completely disagree with myself, and think that this lottery is 100% totally random, from the entire pooled petitions, however crazy that may be! -- I've read a website that clearly states that no one knows, because visa data isn't shared. It does say the LCA (Labour Conditions Applications) data are shared, but that this can only be used as a rough guide towards H1B applications, and in no way a precise marker. The absolutely best piece of evidence I have seen from anywhere on the web is from informationweek.com which really breaks it down well. However, it does a lot more than that. It list all 29,000 odd companies that got visa's, and guess how well pharmacy fares? Well, I wouldn't call it a total disaster, but I would say bloody awful. Almost all of the top 100 are institutions of one kind or another, or in the I.T. game. Here's the overall top dozen H1B companies: INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED 4,559 visas WIPRO LIMITED 2,567 visas SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD 1,396 visas COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS US CORP 962 visas MICROSOFT CORP 959 visas TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED 797 visas PATNI COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC 477 visas US TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES LLC 416 visas I-FLEX SOLUTIONS INC 374 visas INTEL CORPORATION 369 visas ACCENTURE LLP 331 visas CISCO SYSTEMS INC 324 visas The highest ranking pharmacy companies that I could find were: RITE AID CORPORATION 107 visas WALGREEN CO 65 visas ECKERD 41 visas WAL-MART 31 visas CVS 25 visas NEW ALBERTSONS/SUPERVALU 21 visas LONGS DRUG STORES 16 visas SEARS (KMART) 12 visas SAFEWAY INC 8 visas THE KROGER CO 4 visas DUANE READE 3 visas PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS INC 3 visas TARGET 1 visa COSTCO 1 visa And there's no certainty that these were all for pharmacy positions of course! --interlude: The above numbers apparently aren't just for, err, let us call them "new" H1B applications. I believe the statistics merge "new" applications with those that have reached maturity and are being extended - let's call those "old" H1B's. There's no breakdown whatsoever beyond the grand total, so there's no telling how many are old and how many are new, but I don't believe that the extended "old" H1B's affect the actual 65,000 limit for the "new" one's. -- My search was very quick, but I think we're talking about hardly a great number of pharmacists getting through the H1B lottery compared to I.T. workers, and that realistically those thousands of pharmacists each year sitting the FPGEE exam, who don't have a green card already, might be better off looking for a non-profit entry (hospital, university, charity?) into an H1B than keeping their fingers crossed on the current "normal" H1B system. Very very worrying indeed. One last thing before I call it a night. I am well aware now that even some of the most well known pharmacy companies are double-sponsoring their candidates, and paying to have them fast-tracked; but I am also well aware that some of them don't and some of them ask the candidates to pay the extra $1,000.00 fee to have their application fast-tracked should they so desire. Well, that's fair enough, if that's how they want to play it, but I have my suspisions about the benefit of fast tracking. I think it may actually (slightly) reduce your chances of getting an H1B. Going back to my analogy above, with 100 applications for 20 place, 10 of which go to the fast-track group of 50 people and 10 to the slow-tracked group of 50. I think, if you call that "round 1", then 40 fast-tracked people are given a letter saying "better luck next year", whilst the 40 slow-tracked are still in the drawer. Once the 20 who were lucky enough to get an offer have thought replied, it might be that 3 were given to the same person, 1 dies, 2 win the lottery and one got married and doesn't want to go to the USA any more. So perhaps 7 places are re-allocated, but only to the remaining 40 in the slow-tracked group. Second round goes to a third round, and a third round to a fourth before all 20 places are finally taken up, but now the stats are completely in favour of the slow-tracked group who got to eat the left-overs so to speak! Am I right? I have no idea, but it sure sounds plausible to me. Well, that's the update over for the moment, the next entry should be, if I'm right about the fast-track time frame, a posting before the end of April to say how my fast-tracked applications have done. Good luck to everyone, Farmacyst

The information gradually seeps out....

OK, this is all rather complicated, but first of all let me cut and paste most of the announcement that came from USCIS on April 14th 2008:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today conducted the computer-generated random selection processes on H-1B petitions...for the 65,000 cap. The approximately 163,000 petitions received on the first five days of the eligible filing period for FY 2009 (April 1 through April 7, 2008) were labeled with unique numerical identifiers. Petitioners whose properly filed petitions have been selected for full adjudication should receive a receipt notice dated no later than June 2, 2008. USCIS will return unselected petitions with the fee(s) to petitioners or their authorized representatives. As previously announced, duplicate filings will be returned without the fee. The total adjudication process is expected to take approximately eight to ten weeks. For cases selected through the random selection process and initially filed for premium processing, the 15-day premium processing period begins today (April 14), the day of the random selection process. USCIS has “wait-listed” some H-1B petitions, meaning they may possibly replace petitions chosen to receive an FY-2009 cap number, but that subsequently are denied, withdrawn, or otherwise found ineligible. USCIS will retain these petitions until a decision is made whether they will replace a previously selected petition. USCIS will send a letter to the wait list petitioners to inform them of their status USCIS expects that for each of these wait-listed petitions, it will either issue a receipt notice or return the petition with fees within six to eight weeks.

OK, so here's my take on the above: First of all they gather all the files collected during the five day window. They number them 1 to 163,000 and then let a computer randomly select 65,000. These 65,000 are divided between fast-track who will be informed within 15 days of their final status (namely that their paperwork was filed correctly, that they have not been flagged as having any criminal convictions or perversions, and that the US Government have granted them a visa), and those that were non-fast-tracked will be told their final status by 2nd June. But, I believe, all of these 65,000 will have been given (well, their sponsor will have received for them) a "receipt notice", which they can use to track the status of their case on the USCIS website. A further number of files will be have been retained as reserves to replace any of the 65,000 that aren't finally taken, but may not be told for 6-8 weeks, with the remainder being returned to the sponsor. So, either you get a case number, you get your file returned, or its retained for 6-8 weeks as a stand-by, but stand-by's will get told they are in the stand-by group. I got a RECEIPT NOTICE. My sponsor told me I could follow the progress of the file on the USCIS website. I BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN THE 2008 LOTTERY. And just to tie up a couple of loose ends in the story thus far: I did eventually receive an LCA (Labour Conditions Agreement) from the Florida company, and could see that they were offering half the salary of the Californian company. The Florida company never did send me any kind of legal contract, and they haven't answered my very direct question of whether they had fast-tracked my application or not. The law firm has said that I should hear the final answer of my petition within 15 calendar days from the 17th of April, which according to my maths means I should get an absolute 100% rock solid answer by May 2nd, so I just have to wait a very little bit longer (its now May 21st 2008) to hand my notice in, and sell the furniture, and book some long-haul flights ONE WAY!! I shall of course have the concluding update to this section of my blog series as soon as I hear the news, and then I can start on the next part of the process, namely my internship, which will run under the http://naplex-test.blogspot.com/ blogsite. Farmacyst

And finally...

Application Type: I129, PETITION FOR A NONIMMIGRANT WORKER Current Status: Approval notice sent. On April 24, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129 PETITION FOR A NONIMMIGRANT WORKER. Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service. -- And that, my dear friends, is the end of that part of this story. It has really been the most unbelievable ride, since I first thought about taking the FPGEE back in Spring 2006, to gaining my visa, now in Spring 2008. And really the crazy part is just about to start. You know where to catch the next episode: http://naplex-test.blogspot.com/ But I will probably take the summer off and start that blog with an explanation of what paperwork and so forth was required prior to my first day of work in October, and all the problems associated with moving continents. My sincerest good wishes to all of you, and I pray that you are able to follow in my footsteps should that be your desire. Farmacyst