Only 42,000 H1B petitions received in first week

For the first time in several years, the US has received only 42,000 petitions against the mandated cap of 65,000 for H-1B work visas, much sought after by highly-skilled professionals including Indians, a week after it started accepting the applications.

This is a far climb down from previous years when the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had received several times the Congress-mandated quota and it had to resort to a lottery system to decide fate of successful applicants.

"USCIS has received approximately 42,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap," USCIS said in a statement issued yesterday.

However, USCIS said it has received approximately 20,000 petitions, full quota, in the advanced degrees category. "We continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable." Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.