U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has released figures concerning H-1B nonimmigrant visa petition usage during fiscal year 2003 (the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2003).  During that fiscal year, 231,030 H-1B petitions for both initial and continuing employment were received.  Of these petitions, 217,340 were approved, 105,314 for initial employment and 112,026 for continuing employment.  Approximately 78,000 petitions were counted against the Congressionally-mandated numerical limit of 195,000, which was reduced to 65,000 effective October 1, 2003.  Please refer to our September 2003 issue of Immigration Spotlight concerning the impact of the reduction in available H-1B visa numbers on employers for the current fiscal year.  

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