USCIS Has Reached the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year 2015

Contributed by Kim Tremblay, Associate Attorney

As expected, the United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it had reached the 65,000 visa cap on H-1B petitions for the upcoming fiscal year.  The 20,000 visa cap for the advanced degree exemption for applicants with a United States Master’s degree or higher was also reached.

USCIS will finish the intake of the petitions it has received thus far and will then conduct a lottery to determine which petitions the agency will accept and review.  The petitions that are accepted will still need to satisfy the legal requirements for H-1B petitions.  USCIS will first conduct the lottery for the advanced degree exemption petitions and then include the petitions that were not selected in the general lottery for the 65,000 regular H-1B petitions.

USCIS will return petitions that the agency does not select in the lottery, along with their filing fees.  No date has been set for the lottery. Petitions that are cap-exempt can still be filed.

For more information, see:

http://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-reaches-fy-2015-h-1b-cap