On June 23, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of June 20, 2006, they had received 10,261 H-1B petitions eligible for the 20,000 H-1B petitions for Fiscal Year 2007 that are reserved for individuals who hold Masters degrees (or other advanced degrees) from a U.S. university or college.  USCIS notes that this figure only includes H-1B petitions that have been issued receipts, and as of June 20, USCIS had approximately 500 H-1B petitions requesting the advanced degree exception awaiting data entry, plus another 1,800 H-1B petitions that had not been reviewed.  As graduate students complete their studies and receive their degrees, it is likely that the number of filings under the advanced degree exception will increase in the coming weeks.  You can view the cap count here:  http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/tempbenefits/cap.htm.

While a substantial number of these H-1Bs remain available, it is urgent that employers act quickly to file petitions for persons eligible under this category.  The regular H-1B cap for FY2007 was reached on May 26, 2006.  However, USCIS did not announce the cap was reached until June 1.  There will likely be no advance notice when the advanced degree H-1B cap is reached, so employers should act quickly to secure these H-1Bs while they remain available.

Jackson & Hertogs advises employers to immediately file H-1B petitions for any foreign workers with U.S. advanced degrees who do not have employment authorization beyond October 1, 2007.  The only exception would be for those foreign hires who already hold H-1B status and have already been counted against the H-1B cap.  (Note: those in H-1B status working for universities or non-profit research facilities have likely not had their H-1B visas count against the cap, and thus likely remain subject to the H-1B cap if they wish to change to an employer who is subject to the cap. I.e., if an individual moves from a cap exempt employer to a cap subject employer, the individual would be cap subject even if s/he is already "in" H-1B status).  Once this fiscal year's H-1B cap is reached, new H-1B petitions will not be accepted by the USCIS until April 1, 2007, and the earliest start date that will be available on those petitions will be October 1, 2007.

If you believe that you have any employees or would-be employees who need H-1B status for FY2007, please contact our office immediately.

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