U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin to accept fiscal year (FY) 2012 H-1B petitions on April 1, 2011, for H-1B positions with start dates of October 1, 2011, which is when the next U.S. government fiscal year begins. This year there is not an urgent need to file on opening day as the total number of H-1B visas will not be exhausted immediately. Yet it is important to be thinking about the timing of H-1B petitions, and alternatives to consider when there are no H-1B visas available.

As we have informed you in the past, Congress has placed a numerical “cap,” or limit, on H-1B visas of 58,200 each fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for applicants holding U.S. master’s degrees or higher.