On April 1, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) will begin accepting cap-subject H-1B petitions for fiscal
year 2014, with an employment start date of October 1, 2013. We
recommend that all H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap should
be sent to USCIS on March 29 for receipt by USCIS on April 1. Any
cap-subject H-1B petitions that are received by USCIS before April
1 will be rejected.
There is a quota of 65,000 cap-subject H-1B visas each fiscal
year. A separate allotment of 20,000 H-1B visas is available to
foreign nationals who hold a master's or other advanced degree
from a U.S. institution of higher education. As indicated in the
below table, demand for H-1B visas has fluctuated in past years. In
recent years, it has taken months to reach the cap, while in 2007
and 2008, the cap was reached within the first few days of filing.
Although it is not possible to predict with complete accuracy what
the demand for H-1B visas will be this year,
