Fiscal Year 2010 H-1B Quota Reached

On December 22, 2009, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of December 21, 2009 it had received sufficient H-1B petitions to meet both the Master’s and regular H-1B quotas (or “caps”) for Fiscal Year 2010, which began on October 1, 2009 and ends on September 30, 2010.

USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B workers seeking an employment start date in Fiscal Year 2010 that are received after December 21, 2009. USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all cap-subject petitions that USCIS received on December 21, 2009. Based on the timing of last year’s lottery system, USCIS should provide lottery results by early January 2010.

For additional background information on the H-1B visa program and the cap, please visit our previous One Minute Memos: “H-1B Work Permit Filings: Will You Beat the Cap?” and “USCIS Continues to Accept Fiscal Year 2010 H-1B Petitions.”

If you have any questions regarding this One Minute Memo, please contact the Seyfarth Shaw attorney with whom you work, or any immigration attorney on our website.