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On Friday August 14th, attorneys and employers were surprised to find emails from their myUSCIS account notifying them that action had been taken on their case. Upon logging in, it became clear that USCIS performed a second H-1B lottery for those H-1B registrations that were submitted, but not previously selected.  We began hearing rumors of a second lottery earlier this week via social media, but those rumors were never corroborated.  This second lottery is unprecedented and is likely due to the fact that many companies did not file H-1B petitions for previously selected registrations as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employers will have between August 17, 2020 and November 16, 2020 to file an H-1B petition based on the selected registration. If your H-1B registration was selected in the second lottery, contact your attorney immediately for instructions on how to move forward.

Krystal Alanis

713-457-5703

[email protected]

USCIS announced today that it has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generated random selection process (lottery), including those selected under the U.S. advanced degree exemption. USCIS will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the lottery and will issue an announcement once all petitioners are notified. Due to the volume of filings, USCIS cannot provide a definite time frame for returning petitions that were not selected.

Please note that USCIS may transfer some H-1B cap-subject petitions between the Vermont Service Center and the California Service Center to balance the workload. If your case is transferred, you will receive notification in the mail. After receiving the notification, please send all future correspondence to the center processing your petition.

USCIS  has completed the H-1B cap random selection process. On April 10, 2019, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process, “lottery,” to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the 65,000 congressionally-mandated regular cap and the 20,000 masters cap, under the advanced degree exemption, for fiscal year (FY) 2020. After completing the lottery for the regular cap, USCIS also determined that it had received enough petitions projected as sufficient to meet the master’s cap.

USCIS also announced that it received 201,011 H-1B petitions during this filing period, which began April 1st. This is an increase from FY 2019, where USCIS received 190,098 H-1B petitions during the filing period!

As per the new H-1B regulation, USCIS first conducted the lottery for H-1B cap-subject petitions submitted on behalf of all beneficiaries, including those that may have been eligible for the master’s cap. USCIS then selected a number projected to reach the master’s cap from the remaining eligible petitions.

We should begin to see receipt notices trickle in over the next few weeks. If you receive a receipt notice, this means your H-1B petition was selected in the lottery. If your petition is selected, it will be reviewed by a USCIS Officer. An Officer can send an approval (yay!), or a Request for Evidence. If your petition was not selected, USCIS will reject and return those petitions with filing fees, unless the petition is found to be a duplicate filing.

On April 5th, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap for fiscal year (FY) 2020. USCIS stated that it will next determine whether it received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap.

The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings (please see my previous post: New Policy Memo Warns Against Multiple H-1B Cap Filings for the Same Beneficiary)

I will provide further updates here regarding the master’s cap, when available.

Quick Reminders: 

• Starting this year, USCIS will reverse the order of the H-1B lottery for the regular and master’s cap. The lottery will first be run for all H-1B cap-subject petitions filed, including those eligible for the master’s cap. USCIS will then run the lottery for the master’s cap by selecting a sufficient number of remaining eligible H-1B petitions needed to reach the master’s cap.
• USCIS will offer premium processing in a two-phased process during the FY 2020 cap season in order to better manage requests without completely suspending the process as the agency did last year. The first phase will include FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions requesting a change of status and the second phase will include all other FY 2020 cap-subject petitions. For specific details, please see my previous post: USCIS Announces a Two-Phased Approach for Premium Processing of FY 2020 H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made its annual announcement regarding the start date for the upcoming H-1B cap season.  Specifically, USCIS stated that it will begin accepting fiscal year (FY) 2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions on April 1, 2019, and will reject any FY 2020 cap cases filed before April 1st. An additional announcement was made regarding premium processing for H-1B cap-subject petitions. USCIS will offer premium processing in a two-phased process during the FY 2020 cap season in order to better manage requests without completely suspending the process as the agency did last year. The first phase will include FY 2020 cap-subject H-1B petitions requesting a change of status and the second phase will include all other FY 2020 cap-subject petitions. Continue reading

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will resume premium processing on Tuesday, February 19, 2019, for all H-1B petitions filed on or before December 21, 2018. USCIS noted the following: Continue reading

On January 30, 2019,  the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted for public inspection the final rule that amends the regulations governing the way H-1B cap-subject petitions will be processed. The final rule will be published on January 31, 2019 and will be effective in 60 days, just in time for the upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 H-1B cap season.  Continue reading