U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) announced today that the H-1B cap was reached on December 21, 2009. CIS will conduct a random lottery among the petitions it received on December 21 to allocate the remaining visa numbers. The cap does not apply to H-1B employees changing employers or to individuals who will work at an institution of higher education or related nonprofit entity, a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization. Cap-subject employers now must wait until April 1, 2010 to file petitions for the next fiscal year (October 1, 2010 – September 30, 2011).