At least a few thousand more applicants, in addition to the Congressional mandated cap of 85,000, in both categories, would receive approval notifications on their petition for H-1B visa.

The USCIS stopped receiving applications on Monday for the most sought after H-1B visa - the employment visa for highly skilled foreign workers in the United States.

While USCIS would come out with its final tally of total number of applications received in a day or two, officials said it is expected to far outnumber the US Congress approved cap of 65,000 and another 20,000 for those with Masters or higher degrees from an American university.

As such a computerized draw of lots, later this week, would decide who all the successful applicants would be.

A USCIS spokesperson told NDTV.Com that the number of petitions approved by the agency would be much more than the Congressional mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B visas in both the categories.

This, the official said, would give the State Department, which issues the visas through the American embassies and consulates worldwide, enough cushion to ''reject or deny'' H-1B visas to those applicants who are found to be ineligible or those whose paper work are deficient.

''We try to accept enough petitions, so that the State Department would have no problem in filling up the 65,000 seats plus 20,000 for those having Masters in the US. By doing so, we try to make sure that all the visas would be issued,'' the official said.

The official however, refused to divulge further details of this closely guarded secret of the USCIS as to how many more, above the limit of 85,000, petitions they intend to approve this time. Not even the percentage, except saying that this is nothing new and the practice has been in use for the past.

''We do this every year; we accept more petitions than visas,'' he said. It is understood that the figures are based on the rejection of H-1B visas during the previous years.

Immigration attorneys this and the last year have been alleging that the State Department and immigration officials posted at its visa counters have become more strict than even and last year a large number of H-1B visas - at least in India - were rejected, even they were initially approved by USCIS.

Anu Peshwaria, a California-based immigrant consultant, said that because of this reasons a large number of smaller companies this year preferred not to sponsor employee's people for H-1B visas.

Officials at the US Consulates in India have started demanding a lot of paper work - at times actual work orders - from companies, she said.

But, approving petitions more than the cap at times might increase difficulties for both State Department and USCIS. This is more so, when all the applications and their paper work are found to be in order, it would become very difficult for State Department to reject the petitions.

This has happened at least once in the recent past, USCIS official conceded.
''We actually went over the cap one year. In fiscal 1999, we exceeded the cap and the State Department issued more than the 115,000 H-1B that year. Then we were given authority by the Congress to take that excess and apply it to the fiscal 2000,'' the official said.

Given the strict scrutiny of documents and applications being done by the State Department, officials hope 1999 would not be repeated this time as they go ahead with their plans to send petition approval notifications to at least a few more thousand applicants this time.

In case, it happens, the State Department and USCIS would have to seek the necessary legislative approval from the Congress as they did in 1999.