News Update - April 14, 2010
By Alan Lee, Esq.†‡
Much Room For More H-1B Cap Petitions
U.S.C.I.S. announced on April 9, 2010, that it had received altogether approximately 19,100 H-1B cap petitions including those registered under the U.S. Master cap. The breakdown so far is approximately 13,500 H-1B petitions counting against the 65,000 cap and 5,600 against the 20,000 U.S. Masters degree or higher cap. The total cap is 85,000 minus a minuscule number for those eligible under the Chile/Singapore Free Trade Agreement. When the 20,000 for the U.S. Masters cap is exhausted, further petitions by U.S. Masters cap or higher degree holders fall into the general 65, 000 cap.
The low number of H-1B cap petitions is attributable to the general economic malaise and high unemployment rate, that companies are not yet hiring on a continuous basis, U.S.C.I.S. is cracking down on perceived H-1B abuses, and is reinterpreting one of the concepts of what constitutes employer control to qualify for an H-1B visa petition.
The H-1B cap which would normally be exhausted in lottery fashion in the first week of April in most years and which remained open until December 2009 last year appears poised to remain unfilled for at least the next few months.
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