U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced recently that it has received 8,069 H-1B petitions that will count against the Congressionally-mandated exemption cap of 20,000 for fiscal year 2005 (October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005) established by the H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004.

According to a USCIS press release, the new regulations, which took effect on May 5, 2005, changed the H-1B filing procedures for FY 2005 and for future fiscal years.  The regulations make available 20,000 new H-1B visas, only for foreign workers with a minimum master’s level degree from a U.S. academic institution, in addition to the Congressionally mandated annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas.