Philadelphia Immigration Lawyer Blog

On March 19, 2008, the USCIS announced that it will deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker and that it will not refund the filing fees submitted with multiple or duplicative petitions. This step is being taken by the USCIS in an effort to be fair to all employers seeking to hire H1-b workers this year, recognizing that once again, it’s expected that the number of applicants will exceed the available number of visas. Here is a link to the new interim rule. Here is a link to the USCIS fact sheet for the new interim rule is stated.

For fiscal year 2009 (which starts on October 1, 2008) the H1-b visa cap is 65,000 for most H-1B workers although the first 20,000 H-1B workers who have a U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the cap. Once the USCIS receives 20,000 petitions for aliens with a U.S. master’s degree or higher, all other cases requesting the educational exemption are counted toward the 65,000 cap.

The rule also states that if USCIS determines that the number of H-1B petitions received meets the cap within the first five business days of accepting applications for the coming fiscal year (with the first day for filing being April 1, 2008), it will apply a random selection process among all H-1B petitions received during this time period. If the 20,000 advanced degree limit is reached during the first five business days, USCIS will randomly select from those petitions ahead of conducting the random selection for the 65,000 limit. H1-b petitions subject to the 20,000 limit that are not selected in that random selection will then be considered with the other H-1B petitions in the random selection for the 65,000 limit.

The final rule will become effective upon publication in the Federal Register.