At a meeting of immigration lawyers in New York on December 1, USCIS representatives discussed a recent surge in H-1B filings. They did not reveal the exact number of H-1B petitions received, nor did they provide an estimate of the number of H-1B visa numbers that remain, but they indicated that there has been an "uptick" in receipts in the last two weeks, including approximately 2,000 received in the days before Thanksgiving.

There is annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas available. Of these, Congress under treaties set aside 6,800 for citizens of Chile and Signapore. But USCIS confirmed that demand for visas under the Chile and Singapore provisions has been very small this year. USCIS has for several years estimated the demand for Chile/Singapore visas and has set aside that estimated number for use by those two countries.

The remaining number of visas that are set aside for Chile and Singapore (from maximums of 1,400 for Chile and 5,400 for Singapore) are returned to the "general" H-1B pool, and USCIS accepts petitions up to a number that includes an estimate of the number of Chile and Singapore visas that will go unused. Thus, though the Chile/Singapore set aside initially reduces the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 58,200, the reality is that many of the unused Chile/Singapore visas are added back, bringing the number of H-1B visas generally available well above 58,200. That is why, according to the latest H-1B cap count, the 58,900 H-1B filings exceeds 58,200 and USCIS is still accepting cap petitions.

Because of the apparent increase in demand, employers and their attorneys should not delay preparing and filing H-1B petitions and should warn clients that the cap could be reached at any moment if the increase in demand continues.