The last USCIS update on the H-1B visas available for the current fiscal year was provided in mid-September when there were approximately 20,000 slots still available in the H-1B 65,000 cap subject category. It’s now early November 2009 and there are still H-1B visas available for the H1B cap subject category for fiscal year 2010, which began October 1, 2009. The latest release from USCIS states that as of October 25, 2009, approximately 52,900 H-1B slots have been filled. This leaves the current number of H-1B visa slots still available to be at approximately 12,000. While the 20,000 H1B cap for individuals with advanced degree cap exemption has filled up, these individuals can still submit H1B applications and be subject to the 65,000 cap subject category.
On April 1 of every year, USCIS begins accepting H1B visa petitions for the upcoming government fiscal year, which begins on October 1 of every year. Every year USCIS allocates 65,000 H1b visas to the cap subject category and 20,000 H1B visas to the advanced degree (U.S. master’s degree) cap exemption.
In years prior, there has been a much greater demand for H-1B visas than there are slots available. The demand has been so great in the last two years that USCIS has had to conduct a “lottery” in early April from the batch of applications received. This is where the common term “H-1B lottery” is derived from. In those prior years, USCIS would outright reject an application received after the lottery cutoff date (April 3rd in 2007 and April 7th in 2008). In 2007 USCIS received 150,000+ total applications for the 2008 fiscal year and in 2008 USCIS received over 190,000 total applications for the 2009 fiscal year.
This year, a total of 43,000 petitions were received by April 17 for the cap subject category and 20,000 were received in the advanced degree cap exemption category. Over the spring and summer, from April 17 to August 28, we saw an increase of only approximately 2,100 petitions! However, since the To get a better idea of what the USCIS updates have been like since April for the cap subject category (remember, the advanced degree cap exemption category of 20,000 filled up early on), please see below:
April 17: 43,000
April 20: 44,000
April 27: 45,000
May 4: 45,000
May 11: 45,000
May 18: 45,500
May 22: 45,700
May 29: 45,800
June 5: 44,400
June 12: 44,400
June 19: 44,500
June 26: 44,800
July 3: 45,000
July 10: 44,900
July 24: 44,900
August 7: 44,900
August 14: 45,000
August 28: 45,100
September 18: 46,000
September 25: 46,700
October 25: 52,800
Although there was very little movement in the H-1B numbers over the spring and summer, we have seen an uptick in applications submitted since October 25th. Given the fact that approximately 7,000 slots were taken in about a month, there is a chance that the remaining H-1B visa slots will not remain available past the end of the year.
If you have an H1B opportunity, now is the time to take advantage of the availability. It is anyone’s guess as to what the process will be like next spring and/or if the program will be changed in any way.
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