USCIS has just released its newest cap count, informing us today that, as of November 13, just over 55,000 of the 65,000 H-1B petitions available for this fiscal year (from now until October 1, 2010) have been used.

The recent pace of filings means that we can expect that H-1B numbers may be exhausted for the fiscal year by Christmas or New Year’s.  After that, employers will be left with limited alternatives for hiring skilled foreign nationals when US workers are unavailable, at least until the filings for next fiscal year can be made.