The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that, as of June 11, 2012, it had received enough H-1B cap-subject petitions to reach the annual 65,000 “regular cap” limit. On June 7, 2012, USCIS also exhausted the 20,000 H-1Bs reserved for foreign nationals with U.S.-earned advanced degrees. USCIS will reject H-1B cap-subject petitions filed and received after June 11, 2012.

USCIS will continue to process certain H-1B petitions already counted towards the cap, petitions that are exempted from the cap, and DOD cooperative research worker H-1B petitions. Otherwise, USCIS will accept cap-subject H-1B petitions for FY 2014 on April 1, 2013 for employment with a start date of October 1, 2013 or later. For more information, click here.

Andrew W. Merrills is a shareholder in the Raleigh office of Ogletree Deakins, and he chairs the firm’s Immigration Practice Group. Sarah J. Hawk is a shareholder in the Atlanta office of Ogletree Deakins, and Nicole Brooks is an Immigration Client Resources Manager in the Raleigh office of Ogletree Deakins.