On April 1st, the USCIS began accepting H-1B petitions for the 2012 fiscal year. In past years, the USCIS received more applications in the first few days of April than it had visas available for the entire year. However, this year, the USCIS has reported that it has only received 5,900 applications towards the 65,000 H-1B quota. In addition, the USCIS has received 4,000 applications toward the 20,000 H-1B Masters Degree quota.