Fiscal Year 2011 H-1B Cap Still Open

United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that as of November 26, 2010, it had received 50,400 H-1B cap-subject petitions to meet the regular H-1B cap of 65,000 visas for Fiscal Year 2011.  USCIS also announced that it had received 18,400 H-1B cap-subject petitions to meet the H-1B Master’s cap of 20,000 visas for Fiscal Year 2011.  Please note that up to 6,800 H-1B visas may be set aside from the regular cap each fiscal year for the government’s H-1B1 program benefitting citizens of Chile and Singapore.

Last year, USCIS received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet both the Master’s and regular H-1B caps on December 21, 2009.  In light of the 2009 results as well as the annual anticipated spike of H-1B petitions filed with USCIS as December graduates complete their academic programs, any companies wishing to secure H-1B status for their employees who are subject to the H-1B cap should act soon.  Those wishing to wait and file under the Fiscal Year 2012 H-1B will be able to file their H-1B petitions no earlier than April 1, 2011 and will secure start dates no earlier than October 1, 2011.  [For a discussion of employees subject to the H-1 cap, see our earlier alert here.]

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.