USCIS released the weekly information on the numbers of cap-subject FY2012 H-1Bs filed since April 1.   As of May 6, 2011, USCIS has received approximately 10,200 H-1B petitions counting toward the 65,000 cap (an increase of 1,000 over the last week).  Similarly, as of May 6, there were 7,300 H-1B visas filed subject to the U.S. Masters cap which has 20,000 limit (an increase of about 700 over the last week).

H-1B Quota Trends – Slow Rate of Filings; H-1B Caps Are Likely to Remain Open for Several Months

The numbers, as reported over the past week, show that the rate of H1B filings is fairly low.  We start to notice a weekly rate of filing of 1,000 to 1,500 in the regular H-1B cap and 600-800 in the US Masters H-1B cap.   It is still early in the H-1B filing season to draw any reliable conclusions on how long the cap would remain open; however, given the rate of filings for the past three weeks since the H-1B cap opened, it is likely that the H-1B cap would remain open well into the rest of the year, and perhaps even well into 2012.  .

We invite you to subscribe to our free weekly immigration newsletter to receive timely updates on this and related topics.  In the meantime, if you are considering filing a cap-subject H-1B petition as part of the FY2012 quota, please contact us as soon as possible.