U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Announces H-1B Cap Filled
On April 7, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has reached the H-1B cap for fiscal year 2018. USCIS has received enough petitions to fill both the regular 65,000 H-1B cap and the U.S. advanced degree 20,000 H-1B cap.
USCIS will now proceed with the random computer-generated lottery process to select the H-1B petitions that it will review for approval. The U.S. advanced degree petitions will be selected first. U.S. advanced degree petitions that are not initially selected will then be placed in the random selection process for the general cap.
USCIS has not yet announced the date that it will complete the lottery selection process.
U.S. employers may continue to file cap-exempt H-1B petitions for extensions, amendments, changes of employer, and other eligible categories. However, the premium processing service for H-1B petitions remains suspended.
We will continue to monitor developments related to the H-1B selection process and will update you with any important developments.