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아래 한국기사처럼 숫자에 대한 언급은 없지만 마찬가지로 희망적인 메시지네요.
Dear Friends – On March 31, 2009, Petitions were submitted to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“CIS”) to grant H-1B status to you or to your current or prospective employee. The Petitions that were filed were subject to the annual cap on newly-filed H-1B cases. The cap, which is set by federal law, is 65,000 new H-1B visa numbers for the entire country, for the entire year, plus a supplemental 20,000 H-1B visa numbers solely for holders of U.S. graduate degrees.
October 1, 2009 is the first effective date for the next available set of H-1B visa numbers. Regulations permit the filing of Petitions for H-1B status up to six months prior to the first effective date. Accordingly, April 1, 2009 was the first date that the CIS would accept cap-subject Petitions for the coming year. In order to reach the CIS on that date, Petitions were sent to the CIS by overnight express mail on March 31, 2009.
Last year, the CIS received over 150,000 cap-subject Petitions between April 1 and April 5, 2008. Because the number of Petitions exceeded the available allocation of new H-1B visa numbers, roughly half of all Petitions were rejected and returned. This year, because of economic conditions and other factors, the volume of new H-1B Petitions is expected to be lower. Although there will be carry-over demand from last year, the total number of new filings is still expected to be smaller. This should increase the likelihood that the Petitions filed by you or for you will be accepted.
At present, the CIS has posted no data on the number of cases that it has received. The CIS has also not begun to issue filing receipts, which will acknowledge the filing and acceptance of the Petition. As soon as the CIS puts out any news or as soon as we begin to see filing receipts for newly-filed, cap-subject cases, we will be send notices. In the meantime, below is an excerpt from a news release from the CIS about the lottery system and the acceptance of cap-subject cases. I hope to know more soon. Best wishes and thanks.
“USCIS has confirmed that if it receives a sufficient number of cases in the first five business days of April to reach the cap, then the “lottery” will be based on petitions received all five days. USCIS will not begin to issue receipts until it determines that a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received within the first five business days of April, ending on April 7, 2009. After the “lottery” is conducted, the USCIS will issue receipts for those cases which are selected, and all receipts will bear the same receipt date – April 8, 2009. USCIS explained that all petitions received between April 1, 2009, and April 7, 2009, will have the same receipt date.
On the other hand, if USCIS concludes that it has not received sufficient H-1B petitions to reach the limit within the first five business days of April, then it will continue to receive and accept petitions until it determines that the statutory limit has been reached. While USCIS believes that the cap will be reached, they are not able to make any further predictions, although they have heard from various stakeholder groups (including AILA), that fewer petitions are expected to be filed during this H-1B cap season.”