While technically we haven’t reached the end of the H-1B visa season for FY-2014 it is essentially over as this year in the first week of April 2013, the USCIS announced it had received 124,000 H-1B applications and that it would no longer accept anymore.
The H-1B visa lottery was instituted for the first time since 2008 to allocate the visa given the 65,000 regular cap and 20,000 advanced degree exemption extra quota. Premium processing began on April 15 for those applications that paid the extra $1,225 filing fee to have their applications processed within 2 weeks from commencement. Those that missed out during the lottery had their applications and fees returned and over the last few weeks those that were selected in the lottery were notified, although their actual petitions still need to be processed meaning there is still a small chance of rejection.
Below is a summary of this year compared to past year’s H-1B visa seasons. As you can see since the bad economic years of FY-2011 (during 2010) and FY-2010 (during 2009), the caps have been filling ever more quickly from January the following year to November, then June for last year’s season and now back to right away in April as we had in 2008 with oversubscription. Let’s hope things improve via US Immigration reform because no doubt the same thing will happen next year.
| Cap Type FY2014 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 4/5/2013 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 4/5/2013 |
| Cap Type FY2013 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 6/11/2012 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 6/7/2012 |
| Cap Type FY2012 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 11/22/2011 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 10/21/2011 |
| Cap Type FY2011 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 1/26/2011 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 12/31/2010 |
| Cap Type FY2010 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 12/21/2009 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 12/21/2009 |
| Cap Type FY2009 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 4/7/2008 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 4/7/2008 |
| Cap Type FY2008 | Cap Amount | Date of Last Count |
| H-1B Regular Cap | 65,000 | 4/3/2007 |
| H-1B Master’s Exemption | 20,000 | 4/4/2007 |
Hopefully all of you that applied got lucky and possibly for H-1B Visa season in 2014 (FY-2015), new US Immigration reform which proposes increasing the cap to 124,000 for H-1B annually initially with further increases in subsequent years based on demand. Additionally the Green Card petitions that are currently in the system and new ones for particularly STEM graduates from US Universities may also increase along with the potential of the Startup visa.
Cj