The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year 2010 (FY 2010) cap on April 1, 2009. 

Petitions will be considered as accepted on the date that USCIS processes payment of the filing fees associated with the petition, not the date that the petition is postmarked.

USCIS will monitor the number of petitions received and will notify the public of the date USCIS has received the number of petitions needed to meet the government mandated H-1B cap of 65,000 visas, known as the “final receipt date.”  

Like last year, if needed the USCIS will have an H-1B visa lottery to select from the petitions received on the final receipt date the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit. 

Applications that are not selected in the lottery process will be denied along with petitions received after the final receipt date.

For general information on H-1B visas including click on H-1B.

For detailed information on the specifics of the H-1B application process for FY 2010, click on FY 2010 H-1B FAQ’s.