In a rapid (almost daily) succession of press releases, the USCIS has once again updated its announcement about the number of H-1B visa petitions it has received and counted towards the H-1B visa cap for FY 2010. Today’s press release provides that as of December 11, the USCIS had received approximately 62,900 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated cap of 65,000 petitions. This announcement marks a somewhat alarming spike of approximately 1,400 petitions filed and accepted by the Service since it’s announcement on December 9.
Since we are in the final days of availability of H-1B visas under the FY 2010 cap, we would highly recommend that you act promptly if you are contemplating the sponsorship of a foreign national for an H-1B visa under the cap. Time is of the essence! At a rate of approximately 500 H-1B visas per day (with just over 2,000 H-1Bs visas remaining), it is likely that the USCIS will announce later this week or early next week that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B visas to close the 2010 H-1B visa cap.