USCIS announced on April 8 that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2009. It has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the “advanced degree” exemption.

USCIS will pool petitions received from April 1 to April 7 and apply a random selection process among these petitions to decide which petitions are selected for the quota. It will conduct the selection process for “advanced degree” exemption petitions first. All “advanced degree” petitions not selected will be pooled together with all H-1B petitions subject to the 65,000 standard for the random selection process.

USCIS will reject, and return filing fees for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the precise day on which it will conduct the random selection process. It won’t accept any more H-1B petitions subject to the 2009 quota.

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For many people, an O-1 visa is a good alternative to an H-1B. The H-1B caps for fiscal year 2009 have run out on April 7, 2008. If you haven’t got an H-1B quota, our experienced attorneys can help you apply for an O-1 visa. If you want to apply for an O-1 visa, email Attorney Jerry Zhang (info@hooyou.com) with your questions, and he will get back to you quickly—typically within 24 hours.

Zhang & Associates, PC.
Houston ∙ New York ∙ Chicago ∙ Austin
Tel：1-800-230-7040, 713-771-8433
Email: @hooyou.com">info@hooyou.com
website：http://www.hooyou.com