USCIS Announces H-1B Cap Reached

On April 8, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of cap-subject H-1B petitions to meet the FY 2009 cap, including the advanced degree exemption (available to holders of a master’s or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education). Upon completion of data entry for all petitions received, USCIS will conduct a lottery to select 20,000 advanced degree exemption petitions. Any advanced degree exemption petitions that are not selected will then be included in a second lottery to select 65,000 regular cap-subject petitions. USCIS has not yet determined the total number of petitions received, nor has it released a possible date for the lottery.

How This Affects You

USCIS will not accept any new H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2009, absent new regulations.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius will continue to monitor the situation and will update you with any new information. If you have any questions about any of the issues raised in this Morgan Lewis Immigration Alert, please contact:

San Francisco
A. James Vázquez-Azpiri
415.442.1343
ajvazquez@morganlewis.com

Lance Nagel
415.442.1345
lnagel@morganlewis.com
 
Washington, D.C.
Eleanor Pelta
202.739.5050
epelta@morganlewis.com

Eric S. Bord
202.739.6040
ebord@morganlewis.com

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