USCIS Announced that the Fiscal Year 2018 H-1B Cap Has Been Reached

USCIS has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2018. The agency received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1Bs filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption and more than the limit of 65,000 standard petitions.

H-1B petitions that are accepted in the lottery will receive a “receipt notice” by mail from USCIS. H-1B petitions that are rejected will be returned to the employer (or the immigration law firm), along with uncashed filing fee checks. We do not know for certain how long it will take before we know whether a particular H-1B petition has been selected in the random lottery, or has been rejected. During the FY 2017 lottery we began to receive receipt notices by the end of April but did not begin receiving the rejected cases until June.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the congressionally mandated FY 2018 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

• Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
• Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
• Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

Please contact your legal team at McCown & Evans LLP with further questions.