H-1B Visa Cap Has Been Reached for the 2012 Fiscal Year

H-1B Visa Cap Has Been Reached for the 2012 Fiscal Year

Publication

Related Solutions

We provide legal insight and practical solutions for one of the most complex and highly regulated areas of business.
As of November 22, 2011, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap. The agency will accept no further standard or advanced degree cap-subject cases for employment in FY 2012.

There will be no further opportunities to file cap-subject cases at least until April 2012, when the filing season for H-1B cap employment in FY 2013 will commence (i.e., employment commencing on or after October 1, 2012). However, USCIS will continue to accept H-1B petitions that are not subject to the annual quota. This includes amended petitions and petitions for an extension of stay or a change in employer for an existing H-1B worker. In addition, petitions for new H-1B employment will continue to be accepted where the foreign national will be employed at an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity; at a nonprofit research organization; or at a governmental research organization. A petition for H-1B employment that is not subject to the cap may be filed at any time up to six months before the prospective employment start date.

Please feel free to contact a member of the WilmerHale immigration team with any questions you may have, or to discuss visa alternatives to the H-1B visa category that may be available depending upon the particular circumstances.

Authors

Notice

Unless you are an existing client, before communicating with WilmerHale by e-mail (or otherwise), please read the Disclaimer referenced by this link. (The Disclaimer is also accessible from the opening of this website). As noted therein, until you have received from us a written statement that we represent you in a particular manner (an "engagement letter") you should not send to us any confidential information about any such matter. After we have undertaken representation of you concerning a matter, you will be our client, and we may thereafter exchange confidential information freely.

Thank you for your interest in WilmerHale.

I Accept Cancel