Earlier this week, USCIS announced that it will start accepting H-1B
petitions for Fiscal Year 2011 on April 1, 2010. The fiscal year cap
for FY 2011 is 65,000. There will be an additional 20,000 H-1B
petitions available for employers filing on behalf of persons who
earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher; such persons will be exempt
from the FY 2011 H-1B annual cap.
As they have done in previous years, USCIS will monitor closely the
number of petitions they received and will notify the public of the
date on which they have received the necessary number of petitions to
meet this annual cap. If they receive more than this necessary number
of petitions, USCIS will randomly select the number required to reach
the annual cap limit from all petitions received on the final receipt
date. In such a case, all cap-subject petitions not selected will be
rejected, as will all petitions received after the final receipt date.
Please note that USCIS considers the acceptance date for petitions to
be the date they receive a properly filed petition with the correct fee
and not the date that the petition was postmarked.
