Earlier this week, USCIS announced that it will start accepting H-1B petitions for Fiscal Year 2011 on April 1, 2010. The fiscal year cap for FY 2011 is 65,000. There will be an additional 20,000 H-1B petitions available for employers filing on behalf of persons who earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher; such persons will be exempt from the FY 2011 H-1B annual cap.

As they have done in previous years, USCIS will monitor closely the number of petitions they received and will notify the public of the date on which they have received the necessary number of petitions to meet this annual cap. If they receive more than this necessary number of petitions, USCIS will randomly select the number required to reach the annual cap limit from all petitions received on the final receipt date. In such a case, all cap-subject petitions not selected will be rejected, as will all petitions received after the final receipt date.

Please note that USCIS considers the acceptance date for petitions to be the date they receive a properly filed petition with the correct fee and not the date that the petition was postmarked.