On January 27, 2011, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2011. USCIS notified the public that, Jan. 26, 2011, is the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date before October 1, 2011.

Applications for employment start dates of October 1, 2011 and after may be filed on or after April 1, 2011.