USCIS Reaches FY 2017 H-1B Cap

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has once again received more than enough H-1B petitions within the first five business days of the fiscal year 2017 filing period to reach the annual cap of 85,000 new visas. It is the fourth consecutive year requests outstripped supply in less than a week, triggering a lottery. 

Demand for the visas, which plunged during the recession, began to rise again in 2011. The visas are initially approved for three years and can be extended for another three. Such visa extensions don’t count toward the cap.

H1B 2017 Lottery Details :

·         As there were more petitions received by USCIS than required for the H1B cap, USCIS will conduct a random selection process, aka popularly called as H1B lottery, to pick the necessary cap count of 65,000 petitions for regular quota and 20,000 for master’s quota to fulfill the FY 2017 cap.

·         Lottery will be conducted for US Master’s students quota first and then the unselected petitions will be part of the general group to conduct lottery for the selecting the remaining 65,000 petitions.

·         All the unselected petitions, which are not duplicate will be rejected and return along with the filing fees

·         USCIS will consider all the H1B petitions received during the 5 day filing window from April 1st through April 7th for conducting this lottery.

H1B Cap Exempt Petitions :

USCIS will continue to accept all the cap-exempt petitions that are filed with USCIS that fall under the below categories:

• H1B transfers, H1B extensions
• H1B petitions for changes in employment terms
• Second H1B petition to work concurrently for those who have been part of cap.

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