H-1B CAP EXHAUSTED, SO NOW WHAT?

The H-1B cap has been reached or exhausted for government fiscal year 2012. New visas for cap-subject cases can be filed on April 1, 2012 for a start date on October 1, 2012, for government fiscal year 2013.
What happens now with companies who wish to hire and people who wish to work during this year?
The good news for students currently enrolled in school is that if they graduate in May 2012 and receive Optional Practical Training or OPT, and even for those whose OPTs expire in May or June 2012, they can continue to work if a new H-1B petition is filed for them in April 2012 and a change of status is requested.
Another option would be to file an H-1B for a cap exempt organization. The most common cap exempt organizations are higher education institutions and non-profit research organizations. Employees working for these organizations are not counted against the cap. However, also employees that work for a for-profit company that predominately services these cap-exempt organizations may qualify for an H-1B cap exemption. This is a very common scenario in physician practice. Many physicians work for private practice groups but they actually perform their services in hospitals that are either university hospitals or non-profit hospitals that may be classified as research hospitals and in that case those physicians can still claim their cap exemption and be granted H-1B status in the mean time, even though the visas are gone.
For additional questions, please visit our physicians immigration site:
http://www.physiciansimmigration.com/