USCIS has completed the H-1B cap random selection process. On April 11, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process, “lottery”, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 Bachelors cap and the 20,000 Masters cap under the advanced degree exemption. USCIS announced that 199,000 H-1B petitions were received in this filing period (last year 236,000 H-1B petitions were received during the cap season). 

Our office has started to receive some receipt notices; more should start to 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 you are too anxious to wait, you can ask your employer if their H-1B filing fee check was cashed by USCIS. If the check has been cashed, it is safe to assume your case was selected in the lottery. If the check has not been cashed, this does NOT mean your petition was not selected in the lottery.

If your petition is selected in the lottery, it will be reviewed by a USCIS Officer. An Officer can send an approval (yay!), an RFE, or a denial notice. If your petition was not selected, USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions with filing fees, unless the petition is found to be a duplicate filing.

Krystal Alanis

Direct: 713-457-5703

Email: [email protected] 

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