On July 27, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provided an additional update to 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.  As of July 26, 2006, they had received 19,390 H-1B advanced degree petitions with approximately 655 H-1B petitions awaiting data entry.  This brings the true cap count to more than 20,000. While the USCIS has not officially stated that the cap has been reached, these published numbers mean that it has as there are no remaining H-1B numbers under the advanced degree exception.  You can view the cap count here:  http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/tempbenefits/cap.htm. 

As this fiscal year's H-1B "advanced degree cap" is reached, no new H-1B petitions will 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.  H-1B petitions already filed before the "advanced degree cap" was reached, but not yet adjudicated, will continue to be processed per normal.

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