USCIS has 19,500 FY2010 work visas available

May 18, 8:00 PMLA Border and Immigration ExaminerAurelia Fierros

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Monday there are 19,500 H -1B petitions available for the fiscal year 2010. 

The number of filings of H -1B, or work-visas’ petitions received by the USCIS is approximately 45,500 counting toward the congressionally mandated 65,000 cap permitted in the fiscal year 2010 program. The agency will continue to accept petitions subject to reach the general cap.

The USCIS has additionally received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees and will continue to accept filings within this category as –based in prior experience- a margin from such petitions is expected to fall into non-qualifying cases. As per Congress mandate, the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

In a written a communication, the USCIS specified that “for cases filed for premium processing during the initial five-day filing window, the 15-day premium processing period began April 7. For cases filed for premium processing after the filing window, the premium processing period begins on the date USCIS takes physical possession of the petition.”

Regular updates on the processing of FY2010 H-1B petitions will be made available.

For more info: visit the USCIS Web site at www.uscis.gov/h-1b_count