H-1B Visa Cap Reached for FY 2023

H-1B visa lets you work in the US for up to three years. While the period of stay in the US on H-1B status can be extended, it can’t go beyond a total of six years. For FY 2023, the initial registration - through the online H-1B registration system of USCIS - opened between March 1 to 19, 2022. 

In a News Release dated August 23, 2022, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the Fiscal Year 2023 H-1B Cap had been reached. According to USCIS, it had “received a sufficient number of petitions” needed to reach the total of 85,000 H-1B visa spaces for 2023, as per - 

USCIS will continue to accept as well as process H-1B petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Unselected H-1B registrations have been issued a notification - “Not selected - not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration” - to the online account of the registrant. 

What is the US Fiscal Year?

The US Financial Year, also referred to as the Fiscal Year, runs from October 1 to September 30.

Can I still file an H-1B petition for FY 2023?

You can still file an H-1B petition for FY 2023 if you are - 

1. Exempt from the cap, or
2. A current H-1B worker that needs to either - 1. Extend the time that you might stay in the US, 2. Change your terms of employment, 3. Need to change employers, or 4. Want to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions. 

What is an US H-1B visa?

Businesses in the US use the H-1B program to employ skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation might be in the field of - engineering, accounting, arts, education, mathematics, medicine and health, social sciences, physical sciences etc. 

How can I work in the US as a temporary worker?

Getting a prospective US employer to file a petition on your behalf is a common way to work temporarily in the US. The main non-immigrant temporary worker classifications include - 

• E-1, E-2, E-2C for treaty traders / investors and qualified employees; 
• H-1B for workers in specialty occupations and other classifications such as fashion models of “distinguished merit and ability”; 
• L-1 for intracompany transferees etc. 

What is the H-1B Cap?

Here, the ‘cap’ means the limit on the total number of visas to be granted by USCIS in any financial year. 

Each year, USCIS grants the following number of new H-1B statuses / visas - 

• 65,000, plus
• 20,000 filed for those with a Master’s degree or above from a higher education institution in the US. 

Certain workers - such as those employed at a government research organization, a nonprofit research organization, etc. - are not subject to the cap. 

How many Indians got H-1B visas in 2021?

As per the USCIS Report - Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report to Congress October 1, 2020 – September 30, 2021 - “Of the H-1B petitions approved in FY 2021, 74.1 percent were for beneficiaries whose country of birth was India”.

Source: USCIS

A significant number of H-1B petitions filed in a year are for continuing employment of those already in the US on H-1B status.