Immigration Alert: FY2018 H-1B Cap Reached

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has reached the cap for new H-1B petitions filed for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The U.S. advanced-degree exemption to the statutory cap has also been met.

Lottery Selection
Because USCIS has received more H-1B visa petitions than are available under the FY2018 quota, any petitions received between April 3 and April 7, 2017 will become part of a random lottery selection process. USCIS has not confirmed when this selection process will take place.

H1-B Cap Exemptions
USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are cap-exempt. These include filings for extensions, amended petitions, changes of employer, concurrent employment for existing H-1B workers and petitions filed by organizations that are cap-exempt. As previously announced, USCIS suspended premium processing for all H1-B petitions, including cap-exempt petitions.

What Employers Can Expect
Petitioners may not receive notice of selection for several weeks after the selection is conducted. Last year for FY2017, USCIS began the selection process on April 9 and USCIS sent notices several weeks after the selection process.

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