FY 2011 H-1B Petitions Received in First Week: 13,500FY 2011

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Bryant L. Stevenson

On April 9, 2010, USCIS announced that in the first week of accepting cap-subject H-1B filings for FY 2011, only 13,500 petitions had been received against the 65,000 regular cap and only 5,600 against the 20,000 master’s cap.

New H-1B visas are generally limited to 65,000 per fiscal year, with an extra 20,000 available to certain individuals with advanced degrees (the master’s cap). The fiscal year begins on October 1, and petitions are accepted beginning April 1.

The first week’s filings represent the fewest H-1B petitions initially filed in several years. In previous years, USCIS had received a substantially greater number of petitions on April 1 than H-1Bs available. Such a situation required lotteries to determine which petitions would be accepted for adjudication. The last lottery was held in 2008, when USCIS received over 160,000 initial H-1B petitions.

No lottery was held last year, where after the first week of filing, USCIS had received over 30,000 regular cap petitions and close to 20,000 master’s cap petitions. USCIS continued to accept applications for new H-1Bs until the limit was reached on December 21, 2009.

It appears that employers now have some flexibility in bringing on new H-1B workers for a start date of October 1, 2010 or later.
 

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Don't Rely on Your 2009 H-1B Experience When Filing in 2010

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Bryant L. Stevenson

Employers who plan on filing for new H-1Bs this year shouldn’t rely on the flexibility experienced last year. Employer filings for FY2010 regular cap H-1Bs in 2009 did not reach the annual limit until late in December. Most employers who anticipated needing an H-1B worker for FY2010 filed on April 1. However, economic conditions resulted in substantially fewer H-1Bs being requested early. Thus, employers were able to hire H-1B employees throughout much of the year until the full FY2010 allotment had been requested. That’s unlikely to happen again in 2010.

H-1B visas generally are limited to an annual distribution of 65,000 per fiscal year. Immigration’s fiscal year begins on October 1, and petitions are accepted for the upcoming fiscal year beginning April 1. In recent years, substantially more petitions were received on April 1 for the upcoming fiscal year than H-1Bs available. In those situations, a lottery was held to determine which petitions would be considered.

Just as in years past, employers should plan to file for any needed FY2011 H-1Bs on the first day that petitions are accepted. Hiring should be planned in anticipation of a lack of H-1B availability, and employers should not depend on being able to hire H-1B employees as needed throughout the year like they were able to do last year.

Last year’s filing data reflects a dramatic increase in filings at the end of the calendar year. This certainly could indicate a change in hiring conditions that would result in a much shorter window of H-1B availability for FY2011.

Based on this increase, many predict that employers will not have the luxury this year of waiting until late December to obtain H-1Bs, although it is unlikely that a lottery will be held on April 1. So in anticipation, do not wait to plan your hiring needs, consult soon with your attorney, and file as soon as possible.

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