Employers seeking to sponsor H-1B workers for Fiscal Year 2019
can begin filing petitions on April 2, 2018 (April 1 is a Sunday),
for a start date of October 1, 2018. The H-1B visa is used by
businesses that want to employ foreign nationals to work in a
specialty occupation requiring theoretical or technical expertise.
For FY 2019, cases will be considered accepted on the date the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) takes possession of
the petition, not on the date the petition 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. Last year, USCIS
received over 233,000 petitions, and an even greater number is
expected this year. USCIS accepted petitions for the first five
business days before announcing that it had received a sufficient
number of H-1B petitions and that the cap was closed. This year,
