Fiscal year 2011 H-1B Quota May Be Reached by December 2010 As Per Current Application Rate

As of October 01, 2010, approximately 40,600 H-1B cap-subject petitions have been filed. Additionally, 14,900 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees have been received by USCIS. USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn.

As stated above, 40,600 H-1B applications have been filed with USCIS since April 2010, which means that an average of 6,767 H-1B visa applications are being filed every month with USCIS. Assuming that the same pace of filing is maintained, we expect that the H-1B Quota of 65,000 H-1B visa or to be more precise 58,200 H-1B visas (as 6,800 H-1B visas from the total of 65,000 H-1B visas are reserved for Singapore and Chile), will be reached by December 2010.

As stated above, 14,900 case have been filed under the H-1B Quota for US Master Cases (for Beneficiary’s with US Masters Degrees degrees or higher) out of a total of 20,000 H-1B visas since April 2010. The filing rate is 2,483 H-1B visa applications per month. As of date, 5,100 H-1B 2010 Quota Master's visas remain. Assuming that the same pace of filing is maintained, we expect that the H-1B Quota for US Master's cases to be reached by December 2010.

We would strongly recommend filing all the H-1B applications subject to the Fiscal Year 2011 Quota prior to November 15, 2010 as per our experience from previous years, the filing rate of H-1B visa goes up as we get closer to the H-1B Quota being exhausted.