As you probably know by now, the CIS has announced formally that the H-1B
cap has been reached for fiscal year 2008. The exact numbers are still not known, but it certainly looks as though a lot of exaggeration was involved in the early estimates of filings. It is for this reason that I have waited until now to provide you with this update. While accurate numbers are still not available, we are starting to get a better idea of what is going on.
The earliest estimates, based on CIS/delivery service information, was that perhaps as many as 650,000 petitions has been filed. This was later reduced to an estimate of “as many as 200,000” petitions. In their public
announcement, the CIS cited an estimate of 150.000 petitions having been
received by the end of business on Monday. CIS estimates in the past have
been notoriously inaccurate in both directions. It does appear, however,
based on anecdotal evidence from late this afternoon, that the figure for
first day filings actually may be as low a 100,000.
We still do not know if the advanced degree cap has been reached. The CIS
has very carefully avoided making any comments about the advanced degree cap situation. This suggests that while they do not know the actual count, they are not certain enough to announce that it has been reached.
We probably won’t know exactly how many petitions were received until the
end of next week. It will likely be several more weeks before we know the
actual number of legitimate petitions that were filed. There are persistent rumors that two large Indian consulting firms filed 20,000 and 18,000 each. Last year, no single employer used more than 3,200 H petitions. Personally, I find it hard to believe than any employer could possibly have 20,000 immediate job openings. If these rumors are anywhere close to being accurate, then this fact would substantiate other rumors that many companies filed multiple applications for the same individuals. I have corresponded with twoattorneys who filed multiple petitions on behalf of companies – so I know this rumor to be true.
The CIS has not yet announced a formal policy for dealing with multiple
petitions for the same individual. They are not happy with the situation and they may well find an effective means of punishing those who engaged in this practice.
One consequence of multiple filings for the same individual is that the
total number of petitions included in the lottery will be reduced by the
number of duplicate filings. Whether the CIS will take any action to punish those who ted multiple petitions is unknown. We will have to wait and see what the CIS winds up doing about this situation.
The CIS has said that they will give no preference to those who requested
premium processing. Premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions will be suspended until after the lottery is held.
According to the CIS regulations, the CIS must take all of the petitions
filed on Monday and Tuesday and enter them into their system. They will then conduct a computer generated lottery to select the petitions that will be accepted under the cap. They will retain a small additional number to be used in the event of quota numbers unused by the selected group.
There are already reports that Congressional legislation will be introduced this month to raise the H quota to at least 115,000 annually. If this is done promptly, the effect would be to add 50,000 to the current (2007) fiscal year quota, as well as another 50,000 to the 2008 quota. The result could well be additional quota numbers beyond those required by all of the petitions already on file.