USCIS received 172,500 petitions for FY2015 and more than 20,000 petitions filed towards the Masters quota cap. As predicted, with an improving economy, the demand for foreign talent has also increased.
USCIS conducted a computer-generated “lottery” to randomly select cap-subject cases received between April 1, 2014 and April 7, 2014. The first lottery they ran was for the advanced degree quota to select 20,000 petitions. Next, a lottery was conducted combining the remaining advance degree cap-subject petitions and the regular cap-subject petitions to select a total of 65,000 petitions.
If your petition is selected in the advance degree lottery and was filed with premium processing, USCIS will issue electronic receipts to the attorney/law firm on file and assign a case number to the petition. Lottery results for regular cap-subject petitions will be notified via mail. If your petition is not selected in the lottery, USCIS will return the H-1B petitions with the filing fees to the petitioning employer.
How soon you will learn whether your petition was selected in the lottery?
A majority of the lottery results are notified early on but some petitions (also selected under the lottery) are set aside as “stand by” by USCIS. The stand by petitions replace petitions that are denied, withdrawn, or found ineligible. What this means is that your attorney could receive a notification that your H-1B petition was selected several weeks after the lottery has been conducted.
USCIS will first adjudicate H-1B petitions that elected and paid for premium processing set to begin no later than April 28th. There are two service centers that review H-1B petitions: California Service Center and Vermont Service Center. It is very important to stay in touch with the HR department of the petitioning employer to get the latest information on your petition.
This information is for general overview and should not be construed as legal advice. Contact attorney Himani Bhardwaj of HBM Law Offices, LLC about specifics of H-1B process.
