Employers who wish to sponsor H-1B workers for Fiscal Year 2016
can begin filing petitions on April 1, 2015
for a start date of October 1, 2015. The H-1B visa is used by
businesses who wish to employ foreign nationals to work in a
specialty occupation requiring theoretical or technical
expertise. For FY 2016, cases will be considered accepted on
the date that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
takes possession of the petition, not on the date it was
postmarked.
Annual Limit
There is an annual limit of 65,000 visas available for H-1B
petitions, with an additional 20,000 reserved for individuals who
have earned a U.S. master's degree or higher. USCIS
received over 170,000 last year and an even greater number is
expected this year. USCIS accepted petitions for the first 5
business days before announcing that it had received a sufficient
number of H-1B petitions and that the cap was closed. This
year, we encourage all employers to file H-1B
