U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced last week that the annual H-1B cap has been reached for fiscal year (FY) 2012, making Nov. 22, 2011 the final day for submitting a petition for an employment start date in FY 2012.

Properly filed petitions that were physically received by that date will be considered, however petitions postmarked on that date will not.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are exempt from the cap as well as petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who were counted toward a previous cap.  These include petitions filed to:

• extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker is allowed to remain in the U.S.
• change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers
• allow current H-1B workers to change employers
• allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position

The H-1B visa cap for FY 2013 is expected to be the same as it was for FY 2012, with 65,000 H-1B visas being issued, plus an additional 20,000 visa issued for individuals with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

The 2012 H-1B cap was reached two months ahead of last year, when the H-1B quota for FY 2011 was met on Jan. 26, 2011.  This is attributed to increased filings over the past few weeks due to increases in planned hiring by companies over the next 6 to 8 months as well as improvements in the economy.

As the economy continues to improve and companies create more jobs, the H-1B demand is expected to increase further.  This will make the H-1B cap season beginning on April 2, 2012 busier than this one.  For this reason we recommend that you file your H1-B petitions as close to April 2 as possible.

Prior to the recession, the cap was often reached within a matter of weeks of the April start date.

For help with starting to prepare for your FY2013 H-1B visa petition or to find out about alternatives to the H1-B visa, please contact Berardi Immigration Law at 877-721-6100, or click here to send us an email.