H-1B Visa Demand Drops

U.S. companies since April 1 have filed some 42,000 petitions with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency for 65,000 H-1B Specialty Occupation Visas available for 2010, a fraction of previous years' petitions.

In 2007, the USCIS received some 150,000 petitions in a matter of days, and in 2008 the agency conducted a lottery after 163,000 petitions were filed in less than a week.

Because this year's cap hasn't been reached, the USCIS will continue to accept applications for the 65,000 general H-1B visas (as well as for the 20,000 visas made available to recipients of a graduate degree from a U.S. university; roughly 20,000 petitions for these advanced degree visas have been received so far in April, but the agency expects not all will be approved).