Both H1B Quotas Exhausted Yesterday

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that on June 11, 2012, USCIS received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year 2013 (October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013).  On June 7, 2012, USCIS also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions on behalf of persons under the master’s degree quota.  USCIS will reject petitions subject to the cap for H-1B workers seeking an employment start date in fiscal year 2013 that are received after June 11, 2012.  Those who are subject to the cap and have missed the opportunity to file should immediately contact an attorney to discuss their alternatives.

Persons who are requesting an H1B extension, who have previously been counted against the quota in the past six years, who work for an institution of higher education or affiliated nonprofit, or a nonprofit research organization or a government research organization, are not subject to the cap. Moreover, persons who work on the premises of a quota exempt employer for a different entity may not be subject, and J-1 graduate medical trainees who have received a waiver of the two year home residence requirement in exchange for a commitment to work at a VA hospital or in an underserved area, are not subject. Finally, persons engaged in concurrent cap subject and cap exempt employment, are not quota subject.