20,000 Slots Reserved for Aliens with Master’s Degrees or Higher Exhausted.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received enough H-1B petitions requesting “foreign workers who have earned a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education” to meet the exemption limit of 20,000 established by Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2007. Consequently, USCIS has determined that the “final receipt date” for these exempt H-1B petitions is July 26, 2006. Petitions received on July 26, 2006 are subject to the random selection process. USCIS will reject petitions requesting the master's or higher degree exemption that are received after the “final receipt date” unless the petition is otherwise eligible for a separate cap exemption.