USCIS announced late last week that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions for the Fiscal Year 2010 cap on April 1, 2009. All petitions will be considered accepted by USCIS on the date that the federal organization receives the petitions in the mail, not on the date the petitions are postmarked. Up to 65,000 H-1B petitions will be issued for Fiscal Year 2010. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions that are filed on behalf of applicants that have received masters’ degrees or higher from U.S. institutions of higher learning will be exempt from the annual cap.

Please note that petitions for H-1B employment in institutions of higher education or related nonprofit entities, or at nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations may be exempt from this annual cap. Requests for H-1B employment in these types of organizations may be submitted for either Fiscal Year 2009 or Fiscal 2010 and will not count toward the annual cap.

In addition, please note that USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker can remain in the U.S., change the terms of employment for a current H-1B worker, allow current H-1B workers to change their employers, or allow current H-1B workers to concurrently work in a second H-1B position.