More than 236,000 H-1Bs Received: H-1B Lottery Completed

USCIS just announced that it received over 236,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions during this year’s filing period of April 1^st through 7^th.   Last year, USCIS received just under 233,000.

USCIS further announced that on April 9^th, it completed the random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and the 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions with their filing fees.

The next announcement from USCIS should be that it completed data entry for all cases selected through the lottery and then receipt notices for all cases will follow.

Premium processing H-1B receipt notices will be sent sooner and as announced previously, USCIS will begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than May 16, 2016.

USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions that are exempt from the cap:

• Extend the time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.;
• Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
• Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.