Immigration Attorney Jessica Meng

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that H-1B petitions  reached the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2011 on Jan. 27, 2011.  USCIS notified the public that Jan. 26, 2011 was the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY2011.

The final receipt date is the date on which USCIS determines that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of 65,000.  Properly filed cases will be considered received on the date that USCIS physically receives the petition; not the date that the petition was postmarked.  USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY2011 that arrive after Jan. 26, 2011.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

• extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.;
• change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.