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.

USCIS has updated its “cap count” for H-1Bs for the first time since the new fiscal year started on October 1, and the pace of filings has definitely accelerated.  In mid-September, about 46,000 of the 65,000 available “regular” H-1B petitions had been approved, a number which had held relatively steady since early August.

As of October 25, however, USCIS announced it has approved approximately 53,000 of the 65,000 available “regular” H-1B petitions.  Based on that usage, we expect H-1B numbers may become unavailable as of late December or early January (or possibly sooner, if there is a rush of cases filed this month).

The separate 20,000 quota for holders of US master’s degree is also nearly completely filled, so will not likely be available for much longer than the “regular” H-1B quota.

USCIS just released its latest update on the “cap count,” and the remarkable news is that only about 500 applications have been added to the cap since the initial filing period in April.   Since many H-1Bs are hired after graduating from US schools, the current economic situation is clearly depressing demand for professional workers.   As some have noted, this natural decrease in demand for foreign national workers whenever the US economy is slower means that the statutory caps, which limit such workers when the economy is growing, are not really necessary.

At the same time that fewer petitions are being received by USCIS, the agency is subjecting th0se that are filed to increased scrutiny.  Companies are facing Requests For Evidence asking for significant amounts of documentation that the job they are offering exists and will exist in October.  Now more than ever, ensuring that initial H petitions are well documented (some would say over-documented) is necessary to have success in H petition filings.

Those of us with years of experience in the immigration field will recall the frustrations of advising clients during this “cap watch” – employers need to understand that the cap could be reached at any time, so hiring decisions need to be accelerated and petitions need to be prepared quickly.

Fortunately, it also means that employers can make hiring decisions for the next few weeks without the worry that their petitions will be rejected for lack of available H-1Bs.