H-1B quotas still open as of 4/20/2009

[Ron Gotcher]

The CIS has announced that both the regular 65,000 quota and the additional masters cap exemption of 20,000 are still open, one week after the filing window began for the fiscal year 2010 H1B quota. Everyone who applied prior to today will have their petition accepted for processing. Those who file today and on subsequent days will have their petitions accepted up through the day the CIS determines that the cap has been reached. All petitions received prior to that day will be accepted. Those received on that day - and on that day only - will be put into a lottery to determine who gets the remaining spots available as of that day.

[spgc]

Thanks for the wonderful update.
I was just going to post a question about the random selection process they mentioned in the update. You answered it already!!!

Thanks a lot,

[Ron Gotcher]

I plan to keep posting in this thread on a day to day basis, as I learn more about the status of the quota. I will likely change the date in the thread title each day to reflect the update.

[Ron Gotcher]

The American Immigration Lawyers Association just posted the following information, after a conference call with the CIS:

USCIS estimates that they have received approximately half of the petitions needed towards the general H-1B cap, and that they are just short of reaching the number of petitions needed towards the Master's cap.

[Ron Gotcher]

The CIS has just posted the following announcement:

USCIS has received approximately 42,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap.

Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, we continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable. Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

[Ron Gotcher]

It appears that the advance degree exemption has been reached, so all petitions filed (both advanced degree and others) will now be counted under the remaining "regular cap" quota. As of the close of business on Wednesday, there were approximately 23,000 numbers left in the quota.

[Ron Gotcher]

Still open as of today. We don't have any updated usage numbers yet, however.

[Ron Gotcher]

The USCIS just published their latest count. It is a week old, but still of some value:

As of April 13, 2009, approximately 43,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions and approximately 20,000 petitions qualifying for the advanced degree cap exemption had been filed. USCIS will continue to accept both cap subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn.

On Wednesday April 9th, the CIS said that they had received petitions equal to "almost half the regular quota" and almost all the advance degree exception". To me, this meant about 30,000 regular cap petitions and perhaps 18,000 advance degree exception cases. By the following Monday, they had received 43,000 regular cap (about 13,000 more) and enough advance degree exception petitions to equal 20,000.

If this speculation is accurate, then we should exhaust both caps within a week of today.

[Ron Gotcher]

OK, the CIS has yet again clarified things. Their latest update (today, April 20th) reads as follows:

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced an updated number of filings for H-1B petitions for the fiscal year 2010 program.

USCIS has received approximately 44,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap.

Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, we continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable. Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

This puts a much better face on things. If they had received "almost half" of the 65,000 regular cap quota by April 9th, then almost 43,000 by April 13th, yet only 44,000 by today, the pace of new filings has slowed substantially. This means that it is much more likely that they quota will remain open for at least several more weeks or longer.

[jc123]

Ron,

Do you think there is still chance/time to begin the H1 process from scratch and be eligible under this year's quota? I have a close friend that was not inclined to apply because she heard the quota was going to be gone. Now she wants to and I would like to point her to you, if you think there is still a chance.