USCIS Announced Status of Advanced-Degree Cap
Posted Apr 13, 2007
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The USCIS announced on April 10, 2007 that, as of the 3rd of April, 12,989 cases had been received toward the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 H1B cap for professionals with U.S. advanced degrees. This means that cases filed against the advanced-degree cap on April 2 and 3, 2007, reached the USCIS in time to be considered. At the time of this writing, there is no more recent information on how many additional cases seeking the 20,000 advanced-degree cap exemptions have been received by USCIS since April 3rd.
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H1B Quota Not Yet Closed, but Availability Uncertain
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Until the USCIS sorts and counts the cases filed after April 3, 2007, they will be unable to announce whether the U.S. advanced-degree limit has been reached for FY2008. Thus, for the time being, the cap for professionals with advanced degrees is still officially open. It is possible to file cases under the advanced-degree cap, until the time the USCIS officially announces a cutoff date.
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We note that, in the past, the USCIS's announcements of cap-cutoff dates have sometimes come several days later than the dates the caps were reached. Therefore, similar to the regular cap cases, those filing advanced-degree cases at this time need to establish backup plans, should there not be numbers available for them.
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H1B Regular Cap Update
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The USCIS reported receiving a total of 119,193 H1B petitions on April 2 and 3, 2007 toward the regular H1B cap. These cases will be subject to the computer-generated, random lottery, once they have been receipted. The USCIS revealed last week that it may take several weeks to enter all of the cases into the system and then administer the computer-generated, random selection.
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Conclusion
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We rely upon the information made available through the USCIS and other reputable sources. As soon as possible, these important announcements are then posted for our MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers. We understand that both the advanced-degree cap and the regular cap lottery are critical to many of our readers.