The Immigration and Naturalization Service has released statistics regarding the number of visas issued in the H-1B category for the first two months of Fiscal Year 1997. These numbers are important because they provide an indication about whether the annual limit of 65,000 issued H-1B visas will be met. Readers may remember that the INS halted the issuance of H-1B visas last August when it determined (falsely) that the visa limit was fast approaching. So far in FY 97, the pace of issuance of H-1B visas is slower than the annual limit with only 10,114 visas issued for the first 1/6 of the fiscal year. At this pace, there should be about 5,000 visas remaining at the end of the fiscal year.
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