The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that as of December 31, 2010, it has accepted 57,300 cap-eligible H-1B petitions, leaving approximately 7,250 available.*? This benchmark came a week ago, so it is likely that there are now fewer than 7,000 H-1Bs left for FY2011.?
USCIS has also indicated acceptance of 20,000 petitions filed under the advanced U.S. degree set-aside.? This means that the advanced U.S. degree cap has been exhausted.
Graham Adair advises clients to file all necessary H-1B petitions as soon as possible to avoid missing the FY2011 cap.? On average, approximately 6,000 H-1B petitions have been accepted by USCIS every month, although the general rate seems to have increased over the recent months.? If the cap is missed for this year, clients will have to wait until April 1, 2011 to file new H-1B cases, which if accepted would become valid on October 1, 2011.
Please contact Graham Adair for assistance: info@grahamadair.com.
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*Every year, up to 6,800 H-1B numbers are set aside for citizens of Chile and Singapore.? Any unused numbers are rolled over to the following year?s H-1B cap.? This means that in any given year, the regular H-1B cap consists of 58,200, plus any carry over from the unused Chile/Singapore set-aside of H-1Bs from the previous year.?? There were 6,350 unused from FY2010, which have been rolled into the FY2011 cap.? This means that at total of 64,550 (58,200 + 6,350) H-1Bs were actually available in FY2011 for those not citizens of Chile or Singapore.