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Client Alert

Immigration News - April 10, 2007

April 10, 2007

Immigration Practice Group

U.S. Advanced Degree H-1B Visas Possibly Still Available

The United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will continue to accept H-1B petitions on behalf of persons holding a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution. Only 12,989 of the H-1B petitions received on April 2 and 3 requested an exemption from the FY 2008 H-1B cap because they were filed on behalf of individuals holding a master's or higher degree from a U.S. institution. (Additional "exempt" petitions were received after April 3, so it is difficult to estimate how soon the master's quota will be exhausted or whether the cap has actually already been reached.)

USCIS also announced an update in its count of H-1B petitions filed on April 2 and 3. The count as of yesterday indicates that 119,153 H-1B petitions will be subject to the computer-generated random selection process for the "regular" H-1B cap of 65,000 less the numbers allocated for nationals of Chile and Singapore.

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