On April 10, 2008, the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") announced that it had received a preliminary number of 163,000 H-1B nonimmigrant petitions seeking one of the 65,000 H-1B visa numbers available for fiscal year ("FY") 2009. Of these petitions, more than 31,200 were applications for the 20,000 exemption available exclusively to holders of a United States advanced degree.
On April 14, 2008, the USCIS conducted the computer-generated random selection process to chose which H-1B petitions will continue to full adjudication. The agency conducted two random lotteries. The first random selection was for the 20,000 petitions qualifying for an advanced degree cap exemption. Cases not selected were merged with the regular H-1B petition lottery for random selection to fill the 65,000 allotment, which also took place on April 14, 2008.
Petitioners whose properly filed petitions have been selected for full adjudication should receive a receipt dated no later than June 2, 2008. The total adjudication period is expected to take approximately eight to ten weeks. For cases selected through the lottery and initially filed for premium processing, the 15-day premium processing period began April 14, 2008. The USCIS will return the H-1B petition filings, including the government filing fees, for those petitions not selected.
The USCIS has "wait-listed" some H-1B cap petitions, meaning they may possibly replace petitions chosen to receive an FY2009 cap number, but that subsequently are denied, withdrawn, or otherwise found ineligible. The agency will retain these petitions until a decision is made whether they will replace a previously selected petition. The USCIS will send a letter to the wait listed employers to inform them of their status. The USCIS expects that for each of these wait-listed petitions, it will either issue a receipt notice or return the petition with fees within six to eight weeks.
Please note that an individual seeking initial H-1B status is not subject to the H-1B cap if one of the following applies:
- The individual has been granted H-1B status within the last six years;
- The petitioning employer is a nonprofit research organization or a governmental research organization; or
- The petitioning employer is an institute of higher education.
We will provide further information as soon as it becomes available.
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