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USCIS Official News: H1B Visa 2015 Cap Reached ! Lottery To be Conducted

Many of you have been waiting for this official news for quite a few days. The wait is over !  USCIS did an official press release earlier today stating that it has received enough number of petitions for H1B Visa 2015 quota. Below is a summary of the press release by USCIS.

Summary of the USCIS Press release :

  • USCIS received enough number of petitions to fulfill the H1B Visa cap for fiscal year 2015
  • More than 20,000 petitions were received for Masters Quota.
  • The H1B Visa petitions acceptance window for FY 2015, ended today and no petitions will be accepted after today.
  • Due to high volume of petitions received, they are still processing and will not be able to tell the exact data of the petitions received for conducting the random selection or lottery
  • H1B 2015 Lottery Information
    • USCIS will conduct a random selection ( H1B Lottery) for the Masters quota first and select 20,000 petitions.
    • The Masters quota petitions not selected in the first round, will be put in to the pool of Regular quota and then random selection( lottery) will be held for the regular quota to choose 65,000 petitions.
    • It will be done used a computer generated process. NO Manual work !
    • USCIS will reject and return the all cap subject petitions that are not selected in lottery. If a duplicate is found, then the fee will not be returned.
  • H1B Cap Exempt Petitions – Accepted
    • USCIS will continue to accept the H1B 2015 cap exempt petitions
    • Cap exempt petitions for H1B Extensions, Employer Changes, Employer terms and conditions changes, H1B petition for concurrent jobs, H1B petitions filed by research institutions

Similar press release was done for H1B FY 2014 that cap was reached and lottery was conducted last year. Also, You can read our H1B visa 2015 Lottery Predictions  article. Our speculations were correct, we ended up in  a lottery !

I know, you all might be curious to know how many petitions were filed and will I get picked in lottery.  Unfortunately, you will have to wait for few more days as USCIS needs to process the applications for doing lottery.  You can read  How does USCIS H1B FY 2015 Lottery work ?

 

Reference : USCIS Website  : USCIS Website H1B FY 2105 reached 

 

   

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130 Comments

  1. I have applied for H1b this year through a consultancy in regular processing.. and I didnt received any receipt number yet.. so does it mean I am not selected in lottery .. or I have to some more days..Can anyone tell me till what date should i wait..

    Reply
  2. My employer has applied for H1B under general processing for me, but unfortunately i never received any receipt number from USCIS/Employer.
    My employer told me as they didn’t receive any confirmation like USCIS rejected my application in lottery.
    Still waiting for the receipt number… Please share if anyone has faced similar situation.

    Reply
  3. Hi,
    Employer have applied for my wife regular H1B, how long do i have to have hope that she will recieve H1 confirming the lottery pick.

    Did anyone know how long relugular H1B reciepts were sent last year.

    But i know people from premium,Ad,Regualr alreay getting the reciepts confirmaing pick in lottery

    Reply
  4. Good morning !

    I applied under AD/PP/VT and still waiting for an answer. Even though many PP applicants received receipts last week, there were few who received receipts yesterday. Hence, we (PP) still have hope. Let’s retain hope until Apr 28.

    Let’s see how many PP applicants are still waiting for an answer. Please reply.

    Reply
  5. Last year, the USCIS stopped taking new H1B FY2014 petitions on Apr 5, 2013 (Friday) and conducted lottery on Apr 7 (Sunday. On Apr 8, 2013 (Monday), the USCIS informed us they received about 124,000 petitions and the random selection process was completed.

    This year, the USCIS received about 172,500 H1B FY2015 petitions and conducted the random selection process on Apr 10, 2014. Some people received emails with a receipt number. Please do not panic, if you did not get any notification. We still have time to know about our result. Those who paid for Premium Processing (PP) should expect notification between Apr 10 and May 12, since the USCIS announced that they will start PP no later than Apr 28 (instead of Apr 15).

    I got this information from other website. NOTE: This applies to last year cases (FY 2014 ).

    “The earliest notifications in FY14 were premium-processing eMail receipts, which arrived on April 9, 2013. Even though the USCIS officially suspended premium processing timeframe guarantees for cap cases between April 1st and April 15th, some of the premium-processing cases, nonetheless, were acted upon promptly. The Murthy Law Firm even saw some cases approved by April 15,2013, for the last fiscal year.

    By April 23, 2013, the Murthy Law Firm had received eMail receipts for the remaining cases filed under premium processing, as well as additional approval notices. Also by that time, hard copy receipt notices for H1B cases filed under standard, non-premium processing had begun to come in gradually. These receipts continued to arrive throughout April and into May.

    In FY14, the USCIS began returning cases that had not been selected in the lottery on May 6, 2013. The packets containing these filings started to arrive via regular mail a few days later.”

    Reply
  6. USCIS received 172500 applications.
    In general quota your chances of selection is around 46%.
    After removing Mastera quota, you get 152000. You can remove 12500 applications from total, USCIS is expecting duplicate applications and they always keep some buffer applications.
    In remaining 140000 applications they need to select 65000!

    It comes to ~46%

    Reply
  7. Its official 172500 petitions for FY2015 and Lottery process completed. My guess is this time there would be lot of duplicate petitions. My H1B was selected last year in lottery , my advice would be to stay patient till you receive hard copy of I797 and also have a Plan B. Plan B will help you keep motivated. All the best !!!!

    Reply
    • Vikram Krishna,
      They no longer publish those numbers, but do take them into account when shortlisting petitions for the new fiscal year.

      Reply
      • Does anyone know how many applications they received for the master’s cap? I know it’s not published explicitly, but perhaps there is an estimate of what percent of applications are eligible for the master’s pool.

        Reply
    • @Vikram Since USCIS always puts back the unused Chile-Singapore cap to the overall cap, and this category is generally also heavily underused, it does not make a lot of difference if the total general cap is 6-800 less than 65k.

      Reply
  8. Based on last year’s experience I can say that earliest you can find out whether your application is selected or not is to contact HR and ask if checks are cashed or not. but wait at least 1 month for regular and 15 days for PP before you even contact HR for that.
    Good Luck…and Chill!!!!

    Reply
  9. Lottery conducted today!!!!!!
    Total applicant 172,500
    They will start sending the receipt numbers now…….
    “USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.”

    Reply
        • lol..

          I know its silly.. but i do remember reading somewhere that last year they got the emails from uscis within 2 days from lottery..

          anyways ill try to be more patient

          Reply
          • You are right. They will start sending out the emails after they open the packages and get all the information needed.
            So, expect them to start sending out emails soon.

          • thanks !

            I jus bugged my HR to follow up with our attorney…
            and looks like we need to wait few more days to actually know if we got picked in lottery 🙂

    • My earlier comment….

      my guess is 179k

      last yr from 10 months backlog total 124k were received for 12 months 145K
      now with 12 months backlog plus 39k rejected (i assumed atleast 50% will apply this year again) 20k
      + 10% increase 14k

      Reply
  10. Release Date: April 10, 2014
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.

    USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.

    Reply
  11. USCIS Reaches FY 2015 H-1B Cap

    Release Date: April 10, 2014
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.

    USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.

    The agency conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.
    On March 25, USCIS announced that they would begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than April 28. For more information on premium processing for FY 2015 cap-subject petitions, see the related USCIS Alert.
    USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally mandated FY 2015 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

    Reply
  12. USCIS Reaches FY 2015 H-1B Cap

    Release Date: April 10, 2014
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 7 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.

    USCIS received about 172,500 H-1B petitions during the filing period which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. On April 10, 2014, USCIS completed a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. For cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.

    The agency conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.
    On March 25, USCIS announced that they would begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than April 28. For more information on premium processing for FY 2015 cap-subject petitions, see the related USCIS Alert.
    USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally mandated FY 2015 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

    Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
    Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
    Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
    Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.
    U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering, and computer programming.

    For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov or follow us on Facebook (/uscis), Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

    Reply
  13. Hello, is the lottery started?

    any clue on how many petitions received and when lottery starts or when receipt will be receiving to law firms???

    Reply
  14. Hello All Indian Citizens,
    I am not here to wish all people best wishes. I am also not here to discourage any one. But I want to share some facts. These are based on personal experience.

    First question is, why USA? What is so good about it? What do we really want, just H1B or eventually Green Card and citizenship?

    Well, we all know why USA is a country where everyone wants to come and why this country is a country everyone look forward to. So I will not discuss it.

    But do we really just want H1B? or eventually Green Card. In my case I want to get Green Card and then citizenship. Let me tell you more about myself. I came in USA in Jan 2008 on Student Visa, got a degree and found a good job. Last year I was lucky to get my H1B. I am in this country for more than 6 years.

    I have 3 years for H1B with option of getting extension for another 3 years. That sounds interesting. But if my employer file petition for Immigration status (in EB3), then I can keep extending my H1B, sounds even more interesting. But When will I get my Green Card?

    Based on the citizenship status, Indian Citizens who apply in EB2 or EB3 category would have to wait for more than 12 years (At least four H1B extensions). I have not given a thought before I came to US. Have you all given a thought about this?

    Sometime I feel that it would have been better if I have stayed in India, or went to some other country.

    But today I see many candidate going through a pain of waiting for results, like I did last year. I just want to say that please do not waste time waiting for the result, instead enjoy the life. If you are selected, you will be notified. Also spend that much time in finding other options if you are not selected.

    Thank you,

    Reply
    • Thanks for the info dude. I have applied for this year. Really wondering, is it worth this effort? In an advanced country like US, people working with papers, manual entry of data into systems once they reach the service centers, announcing that we are not sure when we can do lottery with high volume of petitions etc. It sounds more like we have gone 10/15 years back in time. Even voting happens electronically in this country and we know how many 200k+ applications when compared to the population of US. It is just a very old way of doing things. Hope they learn faster to save everyone’s time.

      Reply
      • Firstly to you RK, lottery is done electronically. Its amazing how they handle more than 150k applications and then come up with results within a day or two. On the other hand, if you think everything is done manually here, then you are wrong.
        To Zahir,
        I like how you conveyed everyone the message that it takes forever to get the green card, but I don’t see you moving back when you are complaining about the time to get the green card.

        Reply
        • Boilermaker,
          Please read my comments again. I did not say about lottery. How do you feed into the lottery? Once the application is received, staff at the service center would have to enter some information manually into system to identify your application. Isn’t it?
          Instead they can allow the employer / petitioner to create an application online, take the bar code printed and stick them to the document sent over the post. This would take just few hours to make the entries done into the system. This way you are distributing the effort rather than handling with few staff at a single location. I am just giving an example here so that you wont reply by reading half / wrong way.

          Reply
          • I did read your statement. They don’t do it that way. Last year they conducted the lottery a day after they received all the applications. I am sure they are tracking it online through UPS or FEDEX, but I am pretty sure its not manual.

          • Guys, Stop arguing. No one will sit in front of the computer and type all 172.5K application over night and ready for the lottery next day. Actually they just give the numbering to each and every application in the order they receive and That number will be randomly picked even they do not know who packet is that until that number is selected in the lottery and starting ope the packets. then later they scrutinize the qualifications and many more facts. So it not easy to tell who got picket we have to wait at least 2-3 days.

      • @Zahir

        Why USA? because I hate to live in India.
        I cant compete with 120 Cr population every day even for small things. Life is all about living and india life is all about stuggling to live. Why there is a mad race to USA is to live in life atleast for couple of years and also to know that there always a exits a better way of living than the Indian style.

        If a girl is born in india she would be molested for sure physical or mental . We are sick people hence mad race for USA

        Its a very difficult or rather a curse to live in India.

        I heard a lady telling that if you commit mistake in current life you will be born in India next time and you would face the humilation from its ignorant citizens. A fit for nothing people (sparing little %age of people).

        So thats why USA.

        This year I am going to USA for sure.

        Reply
    • Zahir,

      Why do you want to settle in the USA? Not sure of your circumstances in India but me and a lot more here are not here for a greencard? Last time I checked a vast majority of Indians who come here ,work in the US for a while get the global exposure and head back home . But yeah there are some like you..

      Reply
  15. Please don’t be excited or impatient. If you come to know lottery date also, it won’t help unless you get the confirmation about your application selected or not.

    Nothing is gonna change till that communication come.

    All the best!!!

    Reply
  16. @Saurabh
    Will it increase the chances of picking up the petition if one applies from more than one employer? Many of my friends applied like that. I am getting contradicting answers from other forums.

    Reply
    • Off course by the law of probability… just like your chance on winning lottery increases by buying more than one ticket…
      And petitions from multiple employers are not considered as “Duplicate” and hence legal…
      But if anyone has filed the duplicate petitions from same employer then that will be treated as Duplicate and will be rejected, also both the filing fees will be forfeited as punishment…

      Reply
        • What is cheating in there ??? if you have a job ,dont you go to the job which gives you better salary …or would just sit and be happy with the job you have and let some one who is jobless to go and grab that offer …be truthful to youself dude….

          Same way,employers also want best in the market ..there maybe a senario where 2 employers wanted the same guy to work for them .

          Above both senarios are same….everyone what to grab their chances..!!!

          Reply
          • Yes, you go with the employer which gives you the better salary and work for only one employer.
            On the other hand, most of these duplicate H1Bs are done by desi IT companies and I am pretty sure they know what they are doing.

          • sadly yes , but what do to ….

            Equal oppertunity to the job vacancy ..the is no priotity or importance to a certain job vacancy .

      • This is complete cheating..USICS clearly mentions that they will reject duplicate to give fair chance…

        I believe USICS does something to stop this cheating.

        Reply
        • check my above answer,there is nothing cheating there…everyone want to grab their chances..and everything is fair..as long as its embitten in the rules…

          Reply
          • Guys, there is no cheating if someone has job offer from two different employers. There are Laws around all these scenarios. People in US have given enough thought about these processes. If you feel that it is not fair, then it is not even fair to bother going to such country.

          • Hi,

            I will tell you practical example…everyone knows there are IT consultants filing H1Bs and ground reality is they ask candidates to share the expenses. now consider

            1. Candidate A : gets option from CONS A & B , doesn’t have fancy money to pay them both, chooses CONS A.
            2. Candidate B: gets same options have truckload of money (or truckload of guts to arrange money) and chooses both.

            Candidate B probability in lottery doubles and gets 1 petition selected
            Candidate A probability in lottery reduces as there are so many Candidate B multiple petitions and he gets his application rejected.

            Sounds fair?

          • Dude ,look at the bigger picture …

            Firstly its against the law ,to share h1b expenses between employee and employer.

            Secondly ,money is the game changers in any part of the life . Your comming to usa to earn more bucks than what you can earn in your homeland .So whats wrong if they spend their tucks of money on getting a better chance in winning ??They invest and they improving the chances !!! ….

            Everything is fair ,as long as they play by rules…. the sad part is you /me /anyone cannot prove that someone has paid for the employeee to file his h1b .

            So now ,if the first dude pay for h1b is illegal and second guy paying for double h1b is also illegal… at the end both have commited a illegal activity ..there is no small and big illegal activity …a illegal activity is illegal .

            If some one gets sponsered genuine ,if not this year next year he will get sponsered !!

            My 2 Cents !!

      • Technically, employer not the petitioner and the employee..
        Hence if two different employers files the petition for single person it is not considered as duplicate…

        It can happen that 2 more petitions for same person from different employer can get picked up in the lottery and employee end up using only out of that wasting others’ chances…

        I can understand its not good in lottery situation for others but this is how things work….

        Reply
        • *Technically, employer not the petitioner and the employee.

          Technically employer is the petitioner and not the employee

          Reply
    • H-1 petitions are for job vacancies and not candidates. That is why the employer is the petition and not the employee. As long as it is not for the same job vacancy, it is not considered as duplicate.

      Reply
  17. Last year I missed even this lottery. The cap was filled too quick. This year’s season I have my petition accepted to this lottery. I hope to be selected.

    Reply
    • Hi there, Currently I received a confirmation from my sponsor/employer that the application has been submitted to the USCIS thru their lawyer. What will be the next thing I should do? and what information should I ask from my sponsor to get an update?

      Reply
          • If you believe in God, then have faith and trust in people. Lawer or employer will receive the receipt for the paid fees. You can ask for that, but it will be at least 3 weeks until they get one.

          • You will get a LCA Case Number after submission. You can check your status in https://icert.doleta.gov/

          • Simply ask employer for the Tracking number from the shipping company. You can check if it was delivered!

  18. Haha, once again the lottery…

    April 2013 is just like yesterday! How time flies! I missed the lottery last year and I didn’t bother to try again this year…

    I would understand all of the anxiety you would experience in the next few weeks. The only advice I can give is: keep calm, and carry on. 😉

    Jeff
    From Cambridge, UK.

    Reply
    • Hey Jeff. I remember you from last year on this website. I didn’t luck out in the lottery either so I’ve moved on as well.

      Best wishes to all from Hong Kong.

      Reply
  19. Hi Saurabh,

    I have applied for H1b in 2008, and at that time my application got picked in lottery and my h1b receipt is approved and they have sent I797 to my employer, but due to some issue my employer closed their company, they never sent me my I797, can you suggest me if i can use my Approved H1b receipt for quota exempt now. is there any option for me now?.

    Thanks in Advance

    Reply
    • I think your I797 is now expired.. as it is initially issued with 3 years validity…
      and you may request 3 yrs (max) extension if you have already not stayed in USA on L1 without 365 days gap….

      Reply
    • TJ,
      You are eligible for cap-exempt petition for 6 years from initial approval date. Assuming H-1 started on Oct 1 2008, you can apply for cap-exempt petition until Sep 30, 2014.

      Reply
        • MKC,
          Here is a link from a prominent lawyer site.

          Refer the text “The rule regarding the cap references being counted within the six years prior to the petition.”

          Reply
          • My case exactly the same with TJ case but as I remember

            It has been approved on June so I have time until June or to the October

            Also it was just approve of petition I didn’t apply stamping

            do u think still I have chance?

            Thanks in advance

          • MKC,
            Even though it was approved in June, it would have an approval start date of Oct 1. So you have 6 years from that Oct date.

          • Hi Saurabh,

            In this case, what information USCIS will be holding with respect to my application filed by person before 6 years. if i find another employer to file my case, what will be requiring me to proceed further as i am having only H1B Receipt in my hand, as my previous employer havent sent me i797.

            Thanks for reply.

            Saurabh you are really helping people with your knowledge.

          • TJ,
            They will have your name, passport number, dob and petition number. Once you have the new employer, give them the receipt number and print out of online status showing it as approved.

          • Hi Saurabh,

            I have the below problem while processing my h1b, let me know how i should proceed further as i am confused now.

            my employer’s attorney is quoting below with my case.

            I spoke to Attorney about this – it would be an issue in proving that it is his particular receipt number since it could be any persons. It’s up to the company if you would like to proceed with that risk. Fees will not be returned in the event that it is not.

  20. Can someone gibe the exact number on how many H1B were filed under masters quota. Any pointers to source would be well appreciated!
    Thanks,

    Reply
    • Rahul,
      You should follow USCIS site for latest news and alerts. That is the “horse’s mouth” and the only official source. Everyone and every site will either quote USCIS and put their own fake news.

      Reply
    • We should know the total no of petition today. But USCIS has never released the split between regular and masters petitions. They just release the total.

      Reply
        • They did it the same way last time. They announced the total no of petitions received on April 8. April 5 was the last day for receiving petitions which was a friday. The next business day was April 8.

          This year, the last day to accept application was yesterday (April 7) Hence today being the next business day i thought they would release it today. But no news so far. I am guessing its because the volume is much higher than last year (124,000)

          Reply
  21. We should hear from USCIS by end of today about the number of total applications filed. Any guesses any one? I am guessing 160K

    Reply
    • my guess is 179k

      last yr from 10 months backlog total 124k were received for 12 months 145K
      now with 12 months backlog plus 39k rejected (i assumed atleast 50% will apply this year again) 20k
      + 10% increase 14k

      Reply
  22. So, when will the lottery be conducted? When would advance degree premium processing applicants be notified?

    Thank you.

    Reply
      • Well, Infosys reported that they filed over 30,000 H-1B LCAs in 2013… Not sure how many of those actually converted to real applications. Either way, they take up a big portion of each year’s quota…

        In fact, Infosys should just get their own quota pool, which would significantly increase lottery chances for everyone else 🙂

        Reply
  23. Do USCIS have past record of lottery rejection?

    My H1B got rejected in 2007, 2013. This time again lottery so was speculating if US keep rejecting already past rejected H1s petition

    Reply
  24. Hello All,

    if your employer had filled a single petitions, then you are almost done, based on all past data’s it seems only employers with multiple fillings are part of Lottery.

    Reply
        • They will include the petition for the lottery??they simply leave that????:(
          I am non IT and my employer filled single visa forme ,last year samething happened(same employer files a single petition ) not selected in lottery!!!…

          Reply
          • Pain Square –

            Don’t be panic. I am from non-IT background too and as far as I am aware, it doesn’t make any difference with random selection process. Be ready for the challenge.. If something goes wrong (which I seriously don’t wish) – Lets handle PAIN CUBE.. Don’t give up hope my friend 🙂 .. Good luck!!

            Saurabh – Dude! you are a great resource of information to all of us, who are searching for answers to H1B concerns. Good job and keep it up.

    • Dilip Singh,
      All the filed petitions will go through the lottery irrespective of whether the employer has filed only 1 petition or 100s of petitions.

      Reply
  25. Dear All,
    I have come in USA by B1/B2 visa and got H1b Sponsorship and in that time i have converted visa status to F-1 visa before 1st April 2014. Currently i am in USA on F-1 VISA . If i select by lottery for H1 for FY 2015. Can i stamp visa from USA ?? or need to move my home country for visa stamp……….

    Please response…..

    Reply
    • SK,
      If H-1 is approved w/ COS, then you can start working in US on H-1 from Oct 1 or COS approval date (whichever is later).

      If COS is not approved, then you need to get H-1 visa stamped from your home country before starting to work on H-1.

      Reply
      • if COS is not approved means his petition is rejected. Then how he can get VISA stamped in his home country with rejected petition?

        Reply
          • No they are same…
            COS is nothing but the petition approval for the people who are already having some other type of US visa

        • Helper,
          USCIS can approve H-1 petition w/ or w/o COS. For example, the person is in US on L-1 valid until Jun 1. The person applies for H-1 w/ COS. USCIS will ask for proof of status from Jun 1 to Oct 1. If the person is not able to provide the proof, then USCIS will still approve the H-1 petition (on its merits) but w/ consular processing i.e. deny the COS.

          Reply
          • Saurabh,
            For COS USCIS will ask for the information till you apply for COS not between approval of COS till Oct 1. The logical reason for this is in anyway COS is applicable from Oct 1. Say if someones L1 is getting expired in July and he applied from COS in April. If his COS is approved, he will have to go back after July & can come back only after getting visa stamped.
            If L1 is expiring in Nov, then upon approval he/she can stay in USA. Till Sep end on L1 and from Oct 1 on H1. With the COS he/she will get new i94 with validity of 3yrs from Oct 1…. He can stay without visa stamping as well as he/she do not cross the USA boundary…
            If the COS is denied then application is rejected i.e petition is rejected. If person is staying in country with legal visa then COS will be rejected only if his/her petition has some problem..

          • Helper,
            Requirement for COS is that person continues to remain in legal status through the COS approval date. If COS is approved for Oct 1, then person needs to be in valid L-1 status on Sep 30. That is why USCIS will not approve the COS and issue RFE asking for proof of L-1 extension. Failure to provide the same will cause COS denial, but H-1 will continue to be processed.

            Another example, person leaves US in May while H-1 COS is still under process. In this case, H-1 will still get approved but w/o COS.

            Trust me, I have seen enough cases of COS getting denied but actual petition getting approved.

          • Hi,
            I am having the same problem, H1b petition approved (2013) and COS portion got denied, as I travelled to India while the case was still pending. Recently my employer/attorney filed I-539 COS from F1 Opt to H1b. Could you please suggest if above way is the right one to get an H1b COS.

            Thanks,

    • sk, You are going to get screwed up.
      You came to US on a B1 visa & then ended up doing F1 & then H1. The day you leave US it will be near to impossible for you to enter again. So pray for your luck & your long stay. Also try not to leave US until you receive your physical green card in hand.
      No hard feelings but I said the truth as USCIS takes the cases of B-1 to F1/H1 very seriously & literary screws the person.

      Reply
  26. When we can come to know, whether the application is selected or rejected through LOT?? (as a whole) If an application is rejected this year, will there be any special considerations will be there for next year.

    Reply
    • it depends on Regular or Premium Processing, if your employer filed under premium category you will know within first 5 business days(from the date of random pick)… else if regular you will start getting the receipt notice after 2 weeks….. Last year .. i got the receipt notice after 4th week…. one of my friend got the receipt notice after 7 weeks..

      All the best!!

      Reply

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