As of December 21, 2009, USCIS has received sufficient H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year 2010, which ends September 30, 2010. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions, received after December 21, 2009, for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date between now and October 1, 2010. USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on December 21, 2009.
Thus, no one may file an H-1B petition (unless cap-exempt)) until April 1, 2010, requesting a work start date of October 1, 2010 at the earliest.