The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released guidance stating that it anticipates possibly receiving more cases filed by or before April 5, 2013, than is allowed under the Fiscal Year Cap limit. April 1, 2013 is the date on which USCIS will start accepting cases filed toward the FY 2014 allotment.
For the first time since 2008, a lottery may be put in place as there will be a larger number of filings than the 20,000 H-1B cases reserved for those with a U.S. Master’s degree and 65,000 for those with at least a Bachelor’s degree. It may be recalled that in 2008, the USCIS allowed cases to be filed over three days (April 1 to April 3) and all the cases received were put into a lottery system. The USCIS has not released any guidance as of yet on how it will implement the lottery system, should the numerical limit be reached and surpassed this time around.
The USCIS will also be suspending Premium Processing for cap subject H-1B cases until April 15, 2013 and those premium cases selected in the lottery will be processed starting on that day.
This guidance is in line with the advice that we have been providing our clients. Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding this issue.
