Aug 15 2005

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last Friday that it received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally madated cap for fiscal year 2006. The final receipt date was August 10, 2005. Any petitions that are subject to the FY 2006 cap received after that date will be rejected.

Petitions for current H-1B workers do not count towards the H-1B cap. Petitions to:

      1. Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;

      2. Change the terms of employment;

      3. Change employers; or

      4. Work concurrently in a second H-1B petition,

will continue to be processed.

As directed by the H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions for a beneficiary with a U.S. earned master's or higher degree, will be exempt from the cap. As of last week, the USCIS had currently received 8,000 of such cap-exempt petitions for FY 2006.

Petitions for new H-1B employment for an employer who is an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity, are not subject to the annual H-1B cap.

The earliest date for which an employer can file a petition requesting FY 2007 H-1B employment with an employment start date of October 1, 2006, is April 1, 2006.