April 12, 2019

USCIS Completes H-1B Cap Lottery

Please be advised that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has completed the H-1B lottery and randomly selected 65,000 petitions to meet the H-1B regular cap and an additional 20,000 petitions to meet the U.S. master’s cap. USCIS announced that on April 10, 2019 it began selecting the H-1B Cap petitions for the lottery. Furthermore, USCIS completed the lottery for regular cap petitions and projected that it received enough petitions to meet the 20,000 U.S. master’s cap. According to USCIS, 201,011H-1B petitions were received between April 1 and April 5, 2019. This is about 9.5% increase from last year’s lottery.

For the first time this year, USCIS conducted the lottery for H-1B regular cap petitions first. During the first random selection, USCIS chose from all cap-subject petitions, including petitions that were also eligible for the master’s cap. USCIS then moved on to selecting the petitions for the master’s cap from the remaining eligible petitions.

Taking Action

This is the sixth year in a row that the H-1B cap has been met in the first week that filings are accepted. The continued demand in cap filings year-to-year is representative of U.S. employers’ increasing desire to retain talented foreign employees. The arbitrary limit of 65,000 H-1B positions for the entire nation is a reflection of our broken immigration system.

We encourage you to reach out to your representatives in Congress and demand comprehensive immigration reform to include an increase in the number of H-1B visas, or a removal of the cap entirely. Here are links to assist you in locating your congressional representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and your senators: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

For more information on FY2020 H-1B filings, please see: https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-fy-2020-cap-season

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