NewsFlash! FY17 H1B Cap Season Kicks Off on April 1st

Beginning tomorrow, April 1, 2016, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting cap-subject H1B petitions for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). The USCIS will continue to accept cap cases through April 7, 2016. It is widely expected that the number of petitions filed will far exceed the H1B cap, which would result in the USCIS using a lottery system to randomly select 20,000 master’s cap cases, followed by 65,000 standard cap cases. Chances of being selected in the lottery are not impacted by the date of the filing, as long as a qualifying petition is properly filed on any date from April 1st through April 7th. The USCIS will begin receipting and adjudicating premium processing cases selected in the lottery by no later than May 16, 2016. Petitions using standard processing that are selected in the lottery eventually will be receipted, as well, but the timeframe has not yet been established by the USCIS. The remaining petitions that are not selected in the lottery will be returned, along with the accompanying filing fees.

MurthyDotCom will continue to post updates on this year’s H1B cap season as more information becomes available. Subscribe to the MurthyBulletin for weekly updates on the H1B cap and other matters related to U.S. immigration law.

Copyright © 2016, MURTHY LAW FIRM. All Rights Reserved