United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Announces H-1B Cap Lottery Process Comple

USCIS announced it has completed the computer-generated lottery process for randomly selecting H-1B cap petitions that will receive a visa number for the 2016 fiscal year. The government received nearly 233,000 H-1B cap petitions for the annual numerical quota of 65,000 visas for individuals holding a bachelor's degree or higher (or its equivalent) and 20,000 for individuals holding an advanced degree from a qualifying United States university, college or educational institution. USCIS first conducted the computer-generated lottery process for the advanced degree numerical quota, and any unselected advanced degree petitions were then entered into the lottery for the remaining 65,000 H-1B visas. USCIS plans to begin adjudicating H-1B cap petitions filed under Premium Processing Service no later than May 11, 2015.

USCIS will return any petitions that were not selected for an H-1B visa number along with government filing fees. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the H-1B numerical cap. For petitions that are subject to the H-1B numerical cap, the earliest next possible filing date is April 1, 2016.

USCIS' announcement may be viewed here.