From the 07 April 2008 Edition of ISSS-BU News
Latest News on H-1B Cap Filings
Today, April 7, 2008, is the final day for the Service Centers at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to receive “cap-subject” H-1B applications. There are two separate groups that are being counted; those from applicants with U.S. master’s degrees or higher, and those with bachelor’s or higher degrees from any country, known as the “general” cap.
There are 20,000 H-1B visas available for qualified applicants with U.S. master’s degrees or higher. If more than 20,000 applications for this category are received by the close of business on April 7 (and it is expected that there will be), there will be a random selection process conducted among all applications received in this group to identify 20,000. Those not selected will then be placed with those who qualify under the “general” cap. A second random selection process will then be conducted.
For full information on what this all means, please refer to our Q & A on H-1B at:
http://isss.binghamton.edu/imm/FAQ_H-1B.html
USCIS is expected to publish preliminary numbers once it completes the tallying of petitions it has received. Then will come the task of individually reviewing and sorting each petition. The process of closely reviewing and sorting each petition will continue over the next several weeks. USCIS plans to provide regular updates at http://www.uscis.gov, and we will include those updates in ISSS-BU News.