U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the latest numbers relating to the volume of H-1B specialty occupation professional visa petitions that it has received requesting approvals during the H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 cap season. Petitions must request a starting employment date of October 1, 2010 or later. As of June 25, 2011, USCIS had received 23,500 cap eligible petitions filed under the regular annual limit of 65,000, and 10,000 petitions filed under the U.S. graduate degree exemption which has 20,000 available spots. Employers commonly use the H-1B category to hire professionals who have unique skill sets or education in hard to find niches including but not limited to sectors of the scientific, engineering, computer science, finance or marketing fields. H-1B extension petitions are not subject to the H-1B cap, and some employers, such as colleges and universities, are exempt from the H-1B annual limits.