As anticipated, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7, 2015 that it reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2016.
USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption.
As a result, USCIS will place all cap-subject petitions into a random computer lottery system, also known as the H-1B lottery, to select the number of petitions necessary to meet the 2016 caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 visas for the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will first randomly select petitions for the advanced degree exemption, also known as master’s cap. All unselected advanced degree petitions will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general category limit. Only those petitions selected in the lottery will proceed to adjudication. Specifically, USCIS will reject and return all filing fees for all unselected H-1B cap petitions.
Due to the high number of petitions, at the moment, USCIS cannot announce the date of the lottery as it needs to complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7.
Please note that USCIS will continue to accept petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap and will not include them in the lottery process. These include:
| Requests for extension of stay for current H-1B workers; | |
| Amendments to H-1B petitions requesting a change in terms of employment for current H-1B workers; and | |
| Change of employer petitions for individuals already in H-1B status. |
In addition, petitions for new H-1B employment are not subject to the annual quota if the foreign professional will be employed at an institution of higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity, or at a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization.
