On May 2, 2016, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that the agency has completed data entry of all of the cap-subject H-1B petitions selected for processing in the H-1B cap “lottery.” USCIS will begin returning petitions that were not selected in the lottery process. Due to the high number of petitions filed, USCIS states that they will not be able to provide a timeframe in which these non-selected petitions will be returned.
USCIS also announced that some H-1B cap-subject petitions accepted for processing at the Vermont Service Center will be transferred to the California Service Center in order to balance the workloads. USCIS will send notifications by mail for cases that are affected.
As mandated by immigration law, USCIS may grant up to a maximum of 65,000 new H-1B visas per fiscal year. USCIS may grant up to 20,000 H-1B visas separate from the 65,000 limit for beneficiaries who have earned a Master’s degree or higher from a United States institution.
This year, USCIS received more H-1B cap-subject petitions than the available number of H-1B visas. USCIS employed a randomized selection process, known as the “H-1B lottery”, to determine which petitions out of the total number received will be processed under the numerical limits. USCIS completed the lottery process on April 9, 2016.
Jackson & Hertogs will continue to monitor for updates on the FY 2017 H-1B Cap. For more information on the H-1B visa, please visit our guides at this link. For more information on the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year 2017, please click here.
