Finally USCIS has announced that the visas available for 2011 have all been used and applicants wanting to file H-1B’s must now wait until April 1st to file their H-1B visa. USCIS allows 65,000 H-1B visas per year and an additional 20,000 visas for applicants with an U.S. obtained Master’s degree. USCIS announced on January 26, 2011 that they have received a sufficient number of cases to reach the statutory cap for year 2011.
Although new applicants for H-1B visas can file the H-1B petition on April 1st, 2011, the actual H-1B validity period cannot and will not start until October 1, 2011. What this means is that an applicant in the U.S. applying for an H-1B visa for the first time must request a start date of October 1, 2011, and for immigration purposes this means he or she must have another visa valid until that day or else USCIS will not approve the change of status request. Applicants on a student Visa, however, are exempt from this requirement under certain circumstances as per the “cap-gap” regulations. You must consult an experienced immigration lawyer to make sure that not only is your H-1B visa properly filed, but also that the dates of validity are correct and per USCIS regulations.