FY2017 H-1B Cap Reached

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that as of today, April 7, 2016, it has received sufficient petitions to reach the statutory cap for new H-1B petitions filed for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 (October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017). In addition, USCIS has confirmed that the U.S. advanced-degree exemption to the statutory cap – which exempts from the cap 20,000 petitions for those beneficiaries possessing U.S. advanced-degrees – has also been met and exceeded.

Because USCIS has received more H-1B visa petitions than available under the FY2017 quota, any cap-subject petitions received between April 1 and April 7, 2016 will become part of a random lottery selection process. USCIS has not confirmed when this selection process will take place.  Please note that petitioners may not receive notice of selection for several weeks after the selection is conducted.  Last year for FY2016, USCIS began the selection process on April 13, 2015; and USCIS sent notices several weeks thereafter.

USCIS has previously noted that in order to prioritize data entry for cap-subject H-1B petitions, it will begin processing for H-1B cap-subject petitions requesting premium processing no later than May 16, 2016.

H-1B petitions that are not subject to the annual cap, such as petitions seeking an extension of H-1B status or a change of H-1B employer, will continue to be accepted.

If you have any questions, please contact your designated Gibney representative or email info@gibney.com.