On December 22, 2009, the USCIS announced that it had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2010.  They announced that Dec. 21, 2009 is the “final receipt date” for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2010.  The “final receipt date” is the date on which the USCIS  determines that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 65,000.

The USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the “advanced degree” exemption.

Properly filed cases will be considered received on the date that USCIS physically receives the petition; not the date that the petition was postmarked. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY 2010 that arrive after Dec. 21, 2009.

The USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on Dec. 21, 2009.  The USCIS will reject, and return the fee, for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected.