On April 7, 2015, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received enough cap-subject H-1B petitions to meet the numerical limit for fiscal year (FY) 2016. Between April 1 and April 7, USCIS service centers received more than 200,000 petitions. The limit, or “cap” for newly-filed H-1B cases is 65,000 for the “general cap” (less a set-aside of up to 6,800 for specified beneficiaries) and 20,000 the “US master’s cap.” This is the third year in a row that the cap was reached in the first five business days, thus triggering a lottery, or random selection process. The lottery is intended to treat all of the +200K applications filed during the acceptance period as if they had all arrived at the same moment.
Based on past experience, it is anticipated that the random selection process will be completed by the second week of April. Then, it will take USCIS another 30 days to send out filing receipts. Then, by the first week of June, it will begin to return non-selected cases along with checks for filing fees.
USCIS has also temporarily adjusted its procedures for premium processing. To facilitate the data entry of cap-subject petitions requesting premium processing, USCIS has announced that premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions will begin no later than April 28, 2015.
Despite the cap being reached, USCIS will continue to accept and process cap-exempt petitions, petitions for H-1B1 (Chile/Singapore FTA) beneficiaries and petitions for extension, transfer, concurrent and change of employment.
The H-1B cap has a serious negative impact on U.S. companies. Congress needs to learn: The H-1B cap is harmful to the U.S. economy, damaging to U.S. competitiveness and hinders the growth of U.S. companies – all to the detriment of U.S. workers. For more information on H-1B’s visas and the negative impact of the H-1B cap on U.S. business, please click here.
For additional information about the H-1B cap and cap-subject cases, please contact us.