H-1Bs Gone As Of December 22, 2009

On December 22, 2009, only days before Christmas, USCIS announced that the it had run out of H-1B visas for FY 2010 http://http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/digest/2009,1224.shtm. This ends a long strange year in immigration history. The statutory cap for H-1Bs is 65,000 per fiscal year. Historically, this has not been anywhere near enough. In FY 2009, for example, approximately 180,000 petitions were received for those 65,000 spots, and the 65,000 quota was exhausted within 24 hours of the April 1st filing date. This year, in stark contrast, H-1Bs remained available until only a few days ago- 9 months after the April 1 fiing date. The story of the demand for H-1Bs mirrors the story of the US economy in general; a very difficult start to the year followed by a sluggish recovery and a slight end-of-the-year uptick.