Last fall Congress passed legislation stating that an additional 20,000 H-1B visas would be exempt from the H-1B cap. See our January 2005 newsletter at http://www.millermayer.com/resources/news1_5_05.html.  Congress said the 20,000 temporary visas would be for people who have graduated with master's degrees or higher from U.S. universities.  Congress also told the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to start issuing the extra H-1Bs beginning March 8.  

It is now past March 8, but the USCIS hasn't started processing the extra cases yet.  It also says it will open up the 20,000 to all H-1B eligible candidates, not just those with master's degrees or higher. It is unclear why USCIS has decided to open these additional visas to all qualified applicants. A press release by the USCIS is on the front page of the agency’s web site at http://uscis.gov/.

 The USCIS warns that it will reject any H-1B petitions filed before the agency publishes implementing regulations.  After the application period begins, the USCIS will collect petitions for these additional H-1Bs until the agency decides that it has collected enough to fill all 20,000 slots.  Based on experience from previous years we expect the USCIS to receive enough applications within the first few days of the application period to stop accepting petitions.  Because of this, if you are interested in applying for an H-1B you should contact Miller Mayer at immig@millermayer.com as soon as possible.