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H-1B CAP NEARS
As the H-1B cap rapidly approaches being reached, there are some new developments to report. Readers may recall that as early as mid-March, we reported that even though there were many visas left to issue, new applications had very little chance of being approved until October because the backlogs at the Service Centers were extraordinarily long. The worst situation exists at the California Service Center. For the sake of fairness, the INS recently agreed to halt processing of H-1B cases at the Texas, Nebraska and Vermont Service Centers in order to allow California to catch up. The only cases proceeding are those not subject to the cap and those cases where a pending Request for Evidence has been sent.
According to high-tech industry insiders as well as a number of immigration lawyers, H-1B visa applications sent to the California Service Center are taking as long as three to four months to process, making the California Center two to six weeks slower than the Nebraska, Texas and Vermont Service Centers. 
The INS has released a statement saying it is aware of the differences in processing times, and is developing procedures to ensure the H-1B application process is fair for everyone. This does not allay fears among high-tech California firms, many of whom lobbied for the increase in available H-1B visas that was approved last fall, that the visas may be received in inordinate numbers by companies in other areas of the country. California firms have a high demand for engineers and computer programmers, and the H-1B visa program has been one of the ways they satisfy this demand. 
The last official INS announcement on the number of available H-1B visas was that 92,638 had been approved as of March 31, 1999. The 115,000 cap is expected to officially be hit sometime in May. The agency does not track how many approvals each region has granted. 
In related news, the Clinton Administration has reportedly signed off on the INS’ proposal for the handling of cases after the H-1B cap is hit as well as a proposal setting a counting methodology for figuring whether the H-1B cap has been hit. The details on that proposal are being kept quiet until the cap is reached and then the policy will be published in the Federal Register.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association believes, however, the policy will be similar to last year. The INS would not accept cases after the cap is reached unless the case requests a post October 1st start date, but that it would continue to process cases filed before the cap was reached.