USCIS Has Conducted FY 2014 H-1B Lottery
For the upcoming fiscal year (starting October 1, 2014) the USCIS received a total of roughly 124,000 H-1B petitions for both regular cap and advanced degree exemption filings. These cases were received by the USCIS during the first 5 business days that H-1B petitions were accepted. As a result, this filing year was the first time since 2008 that a random selection “lottery” was necessary to determine which timely filed petitions would continue to full adjudication. The details of the lottery can be found here.
This filing season the lottery was conducted on Sunday, April 7th. A separate lottery was first conducted to select which 20,000 advanced degree cap petitions would be adjudicated. Any advanced degree cases that were not selected specifically for the advanced degree cap were then entered with the rest of the H-1B petitions in the general lottery to select the 65,000 regular cap cases that will continue to adjudication. H-1B cases not selected in either the advanced degree or general lotteries will be returned with the corresponding filings fees.
As previously mentioned here, due to the increase in processing time resulting from such a large number of H-1B petitions, premium processing will be delayed this year until April 15th.
Cap-exempt H-1B filings will continue to be accepted by the USCIS but no further cap-subject petitions will be accepted by the USCIS this year. The next filing season will begin in April 2014 with employment starting dates in October 2014 at the earliest, barring any changes to the H-1B system that may arise from proposed immigration reform. If you are interested in filing an H-1B petition exempted from the cap, please contact our experienced attorney staff at info@hooyou.com for a free evaluation. We will ensure that your application is handled promptly.
Founded in 1996, Zhang & Associates, P.C. offers legal services to clients nationwide in all aspects of U.S immigration law. We have successfully handled thousands of immigration cases.
At Zhang & Associates, P.C., our attorneys and supporting professionals are committed to providing high-quality immigration and non-immigration visa services. We specialize in NIW, EB-1, PERM, and I-485 cases. In the past
seventeen years, we have successfully helped thousands of clients get green cards. If you plan to apply for a green card, please send your CV to Attorney Jerry Zhang (info@hooyou.com) for a free evaluation.
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(04/08/2013)