Update On H-1B Visa Availability

Originally published December 1, 2009

As the first quarter of the government's fiscal year 2010 closes, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its count of available new H-1Bs, our most basic professional work visa. USCIS announcements show a waning availability of the visas, prompting concern among employers that the H-1B visa program will soon be inaccessible until October 2010. USCIS announced that, as of November 27th, the Service had approved a sufficient number of cases to exhaust the 20,000 U.S. Master's degree allocation, and had approved 58,900 of the available 65,000 H-1Bs (less a small number of H-1Bs allocated specifically to nationals of Chile and Singapore). For employers, this means that fewer than 10,000 new H-1Bs may be utilized for the rest of the fiscal year, which lasts until September 30, 2010.