Dec 22 2009
H-1B Cap Reached for Fiscal Year 2010 

As of December 21, 2009, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received sufficient petitions to reach the statutory cap on H-1B nonimmigrant visas for Fiscal Year 2010.

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

The H-1B visa program is used by some U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and a bachelor's degree or its equivalent.  For each fiscal year, 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for persons with a Master's or higher level degree from a U.S. academic institution are statutorily exempted from the cap.

USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on December 21, 2009.   USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions received after December 21, 2009 that were filed for new H-1B speciality occupation workers seeking an employment start date in Fiscal Year 2010.