May 5, 2009
The Immigration Service has announced that as of May 4, 2009, it has received 45,000 Fiscal Year 2010 regular H cap petitions, and has also received approximately 20,000 Master's cap petitions. The previous count done on April 20th showed that 44,000 cap cases had been received by USCIS. Regular H-1B petitions are capped at 58,200 per fiscal year (i.e, a total of 65,000 H-1B slots per fiscal year, minus those H-1B slots set aside for the Free Trade Visas for Chileans and Singaporeans). H-1B Master's cases are capped at 20,000 per fiscal year.
The Immigration Service continues accepting advance degree petitions since it is likely that not all Master's cap petitions received will be approvable. Additionally, the Immigration Service has announced that on the day it determines that sufficient regular H cap petitions have been received to meet the Fiscal Year 2010 quota, the Service will conduct a computerized random selection lottery from among the petitions received on that day.
Please note this means that all H-1B cap cases filed through May 4, 2009 have been accepted and have not been subject to a lottery. This does not mean that the filings have been approved, but just that they have not been subject to an H cap lottery and will be included in the cap. In addition, please note that any Master's cap cases filed after the Master's cap has been reached will then be counted toward the regular H cap until that cap has been reached.
The Immigration Service informed the American Immigration Lawyers Association that the 15-day premium processing clock on the petitions filed during the first five days commenced on April 7, 2009.
