I've heard that a new law was recently signed by the President to raise the H-1B Cap. How much does the law raise the cap?

Prior to the new law , the cap was 115,000 per year. The new law, which was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives on October 3 and signed by the President on October 17, 2000 raises the cap to 195,000 for each of the next three years.

In addition, the law allocates most H-1Bs which were already filed or approved to the quotas for prior years.

Finally, some H-1B approvals are not subject to the cap. Prior law exempted the following types of H-1B petitions from the cap: extensions of H-1B status, petitions for concurrent employment where the worker is presently in H-1B status, and petitions to change employers. The new law adds the following exemptions: (1) H-1Bs sponsored by institutes of higher education (or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity) and government or nonprofit research organizations (6,000 - 10,000 per year); (2) H-1Bs for physicians who received J waivers under a Conrad State 20 Program (800+ annually).