Updates on H-1B Quota

In the past fiscal year s there has been a shortage of available H-1B visa, which has been one of the main concerns for many petitioners. The problem of the shortage of visas started at the end of FY03 when H-1B cap of 195,000 were reduced to 65,000 as a sun-set clause of the H-1B law . For the FY05, the cap of 65,000 applications was reached on the first day (10-1-2004 , USCIS started accepting application since April 1, 2004 ); a first in U.S. immigration history. In May 2005, an additional 20,000 slots became available to alien with master degree or higher from a U.S. institution. As of May 24, 2005, more than 6,393 of the 20,000 slots for FY2005 have been used and the USCIS also announced in late June that they had approximately 27,300 H-1B petitions approved or in the pipeline for FY06.

For petitioners filing for the extra 20,000 quota for fiscal year 2005, the USCIS has announced that when the FY05 quota is exhausted, cases received will be automatically considered for FY06 quota with a starting date of October 1, 2005 . For petitioners that have already applied for FY06 and now wish to "upgrade" to apply for FY05; the USCIS Vermont Service Center is accepting "upgrade" filings in accordance with instructions in the new regulations (master degree) . For upgrading, the petitioner does not need to pay any extra fee and only need to provide limited pending case information .

(07/01/2005)

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