USCIS Updates Cap Info for H-1B Workers for FY 2009
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently noted that 6,800 visas are set aside during the fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool can be made available for H-1B use with start dates beginning on October 1, 2008, the start of FY 2009. USCIS has added 5,800, the projected number of unused H-1B1 Chile/Singapore visas, to the FY 2009 H-1B cap. As of the update, the cap for H-1B1s for FY2009 had not been reached.
This does not necessarily mean that more H-1B visa cases can be filed for FY 2009, however. In the past, USCIS has taken unused Chile/Singapore H-1B numbers into account in their estimates based on prior usage and not adjusted the allocation once the final count became available.
