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The USCIS announced that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the
allotment of visas for 2009. Out of the 163,000 petitions that were
received the first five days of filing, 65,000 will be chosen by lottery to
be issued visas. In addition another 20,000 will be accepted under the
“advanced degree” exemption limit which brings the total up to 85,000.Today the USCIS will conduct an H-1B visa lottery to determine who the
lucky winners are that get visas from the huge pile of petitions.Numbers for other exemptions to the cap were not announced. Last year that
total combined with the cap was about 122,000 visas.Meanwhile, during the first three months of 2009 the high-tech sector in
the U.S. suffered its deepest layoffs in seven years, according to a firm
that tracks the jobs market.
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The 5 day deadline occurred. A USCIS spokeswoman told me that a press release will be made the day after the cap was met. She said she didn’t know if the cap has been met (It sounded like she said that with a smile
, but then she told me an official announcement is expected tomorrow on April 8th. I asked her if that means somebody at USCIS knows the cap has been reached, but unfortunately she saw that one coming and wouldn’t confirm or deny my question. Hey, I tried. LOL!Are we all confused yet?
So, it sounds as if the USCIS will announce tomorrow that the cap has been reached, otherwise they probably wouldn’t be sending out a press release on the 8th. Based on the chart below, I am not too worried that my previous newsletter was wrong — it was just a day or two premature.