On April 12, 2016, the USCIS announced that it had received a total of 236,000 H-1B cap subject petitions between April 1, 2016 and April 7, 2016, the period when it was accepting cap subject cases for FY 2017. Once again, these are well beyond the 65,000 and 20,000 allotment of H-1B visas under the regular cap and the additional US master's cap respectively. In addition, the USCIS confirmed that it had completed the lottery (computer-generated random selection process) on April 9, 2016 to determine which cases will be processed and which will be returned. Given the volume of cap cases there is about a 35% chance of selection.
All H-1B petitions received in the period described above, were assigned a computer generated number. The cases submitted under the 20,000 US master's cap quota were subject to an initial lottery. Those not selected under the US master's cap were then included in the lottery for the regular 65,000 cap cases. The USCIS has begun issuing receipt notices on selected cases, however, petitioners should expect extended delays in receiving them. After all receipts have been issued, the USCIS will return the petitions that were not selected in the lottery. All returned cases will be sent back with the filing fees. It is important to note that this is only a "rejection" and not a "denial".
As per an earlier announcement by the USCIS it will begin processing H-1B cap cases filed for premium processing no later than May 16. This means that the processing time of 15 calendar days for such cases may only start after that date.
Based on last year's experience, adjudication on cases filed for regular processing could be delayed by several months.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.