U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on January 27, 2011 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2011. USCIS notified the public that January 26, 2011, is the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY2011.
Properly filed cases will be considered received on the date that USCIS physically receives the petition; not the date that the petition was postmarked. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY2011 that arrive after Jan. 26, 2011.
It is anticipated USCIS will begin accepting new H-1B petitions for FY 2012 beginning April 1, 2011.