DHS reports on H-1B usage for FY 2003

DHS has reported that in fiscal year (FY) 2003, about 78,000 individuals were counted against the Congressionally-mandated FY 2003 cap of 195,000. The corresponding number for FY 2002 was 79,000. The H-1B cap for FY 2004 is only 65,000 [8 CFR 214.2(h)(8)(A)]. If H1-B usage continues as it has during the past two years, and Congress does not raise the cap, the FY 2004 supply of H-1B numbers will be exhausted before the end of the fiscal years, as it had in the years prior to the cap being raised. Individuals employed by institutions of higher education (and their affiliated nonprofit entities), nonprofit research organizations, and governmental research organizations, continue to be exempt from the cap, however. AMDOC#: 200310010