H-1B Cap Reached for Fiscal Year

January 28, 2011

As noted below, USCIS has announced that the H-1B cap has been met for this Fiscal Year as of January 26th. That means that, unless an H-1B worker has already been counted against the cap, cap-subject employers must generally wait until April 1, 2011 to file H-1B petitions for effective dates starting October 1, 2011.

USCIS Reaches FY 2011 H-1B Cap

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2011. USCIS is notifying the public that yesterday, Jan. 26, 2011, is the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY2011.

The final receipt date is the date on which USCIS determines that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 65,000. 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 FY2011 that arrive after Jan. 26, 2011.

USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on Jan. 26, 2011. USCIS will use this process to select petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject all remaining cap-subject petitions not randomly selected and will return the accompanying fee.

Please contact Matt Raynes at our Bangor, Maine office with questions.

This alert is provided as general information, and is not a substitute for legal or other professional advice.