April 8, 2014 –
H-1B visa quota reached at start of filing cycle

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced on April 7, 2014, via a press release on its website, that it had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 as well as the cap of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the regular cap under the advanced degree exemption for fiscal year 2015 (“FY 2015”).

Consequently, USCIS will institute its computer generated random selection process, first to select the 20,000 advanced degree petitions and subsequently to select 65,000 petitions from among the remaining advanced degree petitions not initially selected and the regular H-1B cap petitions.

Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date on which it will conduct the random selection process.

H-1B petitions that are not subject to either the regular or the advance degree caps will continue to be received by USCIS. These include:

• Requests for extensions of stay for current H-1B workers;
• Amendments to H-1B petitions requesting a change in the terms of
  employment for current H-1B workers; and
• Change of employer petitions for individuals already in H-1B
  status.

In addition, petitions for new H-1B employment are not subject to the annual quota if the foreign professional will be employed at an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity, or at a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization.

We will provide an update once USCIS releases more information regarding the H-1B cap.

For more information click here.

Yes!  Please sign me up to receive email alerts from other Gunster practice areas.