Today, USCIS announced that as of May 18, 2012, it had received 42,000 of 65,000 Regular Cap petitions and 16,000 of 20,000 U.S. Master’s Cap petitions.  Universities, nonprofit research centers, and certain related entities are exempt from the H-1B cap, as are H-1B extensions and H-1B change of employer petitions for persons already counted against the H-1B cap in prior years.

As noted previously, because of this surge in demand for new H-1B petitions, employers thinking about filing an H-1B petition on behalf of a foreign worker for the 2013 Fiscal Year starting Oct. 1, 2012 should consider filing immediately as it appears that there will be greater demand for H-1B cap numbers this year than in recent years. 

For more information visit www.uscis.gov/h-1b_count