The H-1B visas for fiscal year 2012 are still available. To date, only 18,400 H-1B petitions have been received by USCIS, with the maximum allowed being 65,000 per year. For the master’s cap, USCIS has received 11,900 H-1B petitions, with the max allowed of 20,000 per year.
Employers are apparently more reluctant these days to file H-1B visas, due to the restrictions that USCIS has been placing on H-1Bs, including more difficulty in getting approved in the first place. Employers are simply scared of USCIS, and very well they have good reason to be, as all I’s must be dotted and all t’s must be crossed, as the saying goes.
In addition, USCIS has been recently denying some cases that would be approvable in the past. From my conversations with other immigration attorneys and from research online at www.aila.org, USCIS seems to be denying the market research analyst H-1B petitions, for example, where in the past a market research analyst was considered to be “H-1B caliber.” Now USCIS sends requests for evidence and then will deny many of these market research H-1B cases, citing that the employer does not need a market research analyst.
In addition, in some H-1B transfers, the USCIS is requesting the beneficiary’s pay stubs and W-2’s from previous years, to ensure that the beneficiary was maintaining status before his H-1B can be transferred. Therefore all H-1B visa holders must make sure that they are in strict compliance with the information provided to USCIS in connection with their H-1B visa, to avoid having their future H-1B transfer denied.