USCIS Reaches FY 2014 H-1B Cap (More Details added)

If you missed the original article, please click here: USCIS Original Prediction For FY2014 H1B

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption.

After today, USCIS will not accept H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013.

The agency will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.

Due to the high number of petitions received, USCIS is not yet able to announce the exact day of the random selection process. Also, USCIS is currently not providing the total number of petitions received, as they continue to accept filings today.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.

USCIS will provide more detailed information about the H-1B cap next week.

Official Announcement:  http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=5051f359827dd310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e7801c2c9be44210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

More Details:

This is the first time since April 2008 that the cap was reached in the first week. There are some news report that USCIS got more than 60,000 H1B application in the first day itself.

However there is a law that USCIS must accept application till April 5 even if it has received enough applications on the first day (April 1) or even in the first hour of the first day. 

There was uncertainty for few employers because when the H1B application was delivered to USCIS, it was not scanned as delivered. USCIS has a rule that employers can send only one application per person. If they send more than one, then they will reject all applications received for that person. Hence employers who did not get confirmation about application been delivered on time were very anxious - since they cannot resubmit a new application.

It is likely that total applications received in the first five days can be more than 150,000. USCIS will now do a lottery and select applications. The people who got the lottery will be notified quickly by mailing of processing receipts. Once that is complete that USCIS will notify other employers who were not selected in the lottery.

H1B applications with Masters degree can double dip. They are eligible for 20,000 separate masters cap. If they are not selected in that lottery; than they are once again eligible for lottery for the usual 65,000 cap.

Update: USCIS received 124,000 applications from Apr 1 to Apr 5. Read More

Did you know: US has a special treaty with Singapore and Chile. USCIS reserves 5,200 H1B visas (from total 65,000 visas) for people from those two countries. However very few people apply from there and hence USCIS can use most of the visas for all countries.