On June 11, 2012, USCIS received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the statutory cap for FY 2013.
On June 7, 2012, USCIS also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will reject petitions subject to the cap for H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY 2013 that are received after June 11, 2012.
USCIS continues to accept petitions exempted from the cap and DOD cooperative research worker H-1B petitions and Chile/Singapore H-1B1 petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2013.
H-1B Quota / Cap Exemptions:
The following H-1B visa petitions are not subject to the annual quota:
- An amended H-1B petition.
- An H1B Renewal / Extension petition.
- An H1B Transfer petition.
- The employer is an institution of higher education (College or University).
- The employer is a nonprofit organization or entity related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education (Hospital affiliated with a University) and the Foreign National Beneficiary (Worker) is enrolled in the jointly managed program.
- The employer is a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization.The Foreign National Beneficiary (Worker) has been previously granted status as an H-1B visa nonimmigrant in the past 6 years and not left the U.S. for more than a year after attaining such status.