Hammond Law Group, LLC

With the recent announcement from the USCIS that 56,900 H-1b cases have been counted against the FY 2010 cap, there has been wide speculation about when the cap will actually be reached. Will it be a Hanukkah or Christmas present or will we get to ring in a new year with filings still to be done ? There has also been some recent news reports that state the actual cap is 58,200 due to the set-aside of 6,800 visas for the H-1b1 which are Free Trade Act visas issued to natioanls of Chile and Singapore.  Those reports fail to take into consideration that unused numbers from the H-1b1 “spill-over” into the next fiscal year.  Consequently, the calculation is actually 65,000 minus 6,800 plus the balance of the 6,800 from the prior fiscal year equals the actual cap. Although the numbers of unused H-1b1 visas has not been disclosed, the information that has been released indicates very light usage of the H-1b1 visa in FY 2009 and estimates are that in excess of 6,000 H-1ba visas remained which brings us right back to where we started i.e. 65,000.  Breathe a sigh of relief here but, do not delay as the cap will likely be reached very soon.