Please see the attached memorandum released by the USCIS on Dec 10,09.
As of December 15, 2009, approximately 64,200 H-1B cap-subject petitions had been filed. USCIS has approved sufficient H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees to meet the exemption of 20,000 from the fiscal year 2010 cap. Any H-1B petitions filed on behalf of an alien with an advanced degree will now count toward the general H-1B cap of 65,000.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2010. USCIS is hereby notifying the public that Dec. 21, 2009 is the “final receipt date” for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2010.
As of 27 April 2012 count, USCIS has received 29,200 regular cap H-1 B petitions and 12,300 advanced degree H-1B petitions. These numbers are considerably higher than the ones we saw at this time in the fiscal years 2011 and 2012 (we are now in FY 2013).