U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today, June 12, 2012, that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 for fiscal year (FY) 2013. Yesterday, June 11, 2012, was the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date beginning October 1, 2012.

USCIS will consider properly filed cases as received on the date that the petition was physically received by USCIS, not the date that the petition was postmarked. All cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers arriving after June 11, 2012 and seeking an employment start date on October 1, 2012 or later will be rejected.

In addition, as of June 7, 2012, USCIS already received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the ‘advanced degree’ exemption.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. A number of employers may qualify to be cap-exempt and are allowed to file an H-1B petition at any time. Cap-exempt employers include (1) an institution of higher education, (2) an organization related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education or a nonprofit entity, and (3) a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization. Consequently, many educational institutions, non-profits and research organizations may qualify to file cap-exempt H-1Bs.

In addition, petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted toward the FY 2013 H-1B cap. As such, USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions requesting 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.

For more information about the alternatives for work authorization between now and October 1, 2013, when the new fiscal year’s H-1B quota would begin (as a reminder, April 1, 2013 is the earliest a cap-subject H-1B application can be filed), please contact us at info@ornerobrien.com.