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USCIS Official News : H1B Visa 2016 Cap Reached – Will have Lottery

Well folks, the wait is over, all the H1B visa 2016 predictions as many anticipated have come true,  USCIS received more petitions that required for the yearly cap, we are yet to know the exact number though.  USCIS released an official press note earlier today on the H1B cap reach news. Below are the details.

Summary of the USCIS News Release on H1B Visa 2016 Cap reached  : 

  • H1B visa cap for FY 2016 is reached as USCIS received enough number of petitions for this fiscal year 2016, also enough number of petitions for the master’s quota are more than 20,000
  • As there are more petitions received by USCIS than required for the H1B cap, USCIS will conduct a random selection process, aka H1B lottery, to pick the necessary count of 65,000 petitions for regular quota and 20,000 for master’s quota to fulfill the 2016 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. You can read How does H1B visa Lottery work
  • USCIS will consider all the H1B petitions received from April 1st until April 7th for  conducting this lottery.
  • Due to the high volume of the petitions, USCIS cannot announce the date of H1B Lottery at the moment, as they need to do the initial paperwork so that lottery can be conducted for the petitions filed.
  • USCIS will NOT include the cap-exempt petitions, aka who already have filed earlier and counted towards H1B cap, in the lottery selection process.
  • 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.

As far as I can see, there is nothing new in the press release, it is pretty standard and in-line with the H1B Visa 2015 Cap reached press release .  The big question still remains on the lottery date. To get the details based on last year, Check out the article on H1B 2016 lottery date and other info 

What are your thoughts ?

USCIS Official Tweets with Links to their articles :

   

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389 Comments

  1. Totally agree with ‘YDisKolaveri’. To support his/her comment, here are some stats from Wikipedia (:Immigration to the United States”):

    Immigrants from 1986 – 2012:
    Total – 26.1 million
    Now lets compare this to the other nations in top 5 list:

    Mexico – 5.5 million i.e. 21.1% of total immigrants (4.7% of their population)
    Philippines – 1.5 million i.e. 5.7% of total immigrants (1.5% of their population)
    China – 1.4 million i.e. 5.3% of total immigrants (0.1% of their population)
    India – 1.3 million i.e. c.5% of total immigrants. And this is just 0.1% of our total population of 1,250 million (1.2 Bn)
    Vietnam – 0.9 million i.e. 3.4% of total immigrants (1% of their population)

    So actually India is 4th on the list!

    Reply
  2. Dear All,
    I have been reviewing all your comments from past 5 days, thank you for the people participated. Since it is start of Monday and I assume we should hear the CAP count announced by USCIS soon today.

    I am also assuming that without announcing the CAP and Lottery results, USCIS may also start crediting the amount from the employer and both the news may come at the same time. It does not mean if there is no news than lottery did not happen. From past experience must and should have been completed by 10/11th APR.

    I humble request to you all is that if at all you people start to get updates from employer, Please post the same as what date and time you got.

    I also request all not to put fake comments and create panic to peoples.

    It’s always a saying that, be honest, confident, trust and be true to yourself, Luck and opportunity would come to you by itself.

    Reply
    • One thing you can be sure of, is that the very second USCIS starts cashing checks and sending out emails, the news will spread like wildfire.

      I personally am not worried about not finding out — I am much more worried that I will get increasingly tense if others start to find out and I don’t!!

      Reply
  3. This has gone too far. There is no perfect system, USCIS H1B processing system is not an exception. I never think multiple petitions from multiple employers at the same time is legal. But it does. And look like someone knows how to take advantage of this “system error” and someone doesn’t (including me). I don’t see any point to argue whether filing multiple petitions from multiple employers at the same time is ethical or legal. What if you win and what if you lose??? You still can’t change the system. Just deal with it. If the Congress finds any problem or error in this system, they will fix it. That’s it.

    One more thing, we are all filing H1B visa this year, that means we are all high-skilled workers, or in another word, well-educated. So please don’t say bad words to each other or blame the whole country.

    Reply
    • Thanks Nav for a very thoughtful comment. Likewise I have been following this thread since past few days, which is mostly full of comments bashing one another. My guess is that majority (if not all) of those who are commenting (for or against) Indians, are all themselves Indians too, who are disgruntled by the body shops and fake resume / fake experience candidates.

      I feel the site admin should take measures to stop such unhealthy conversations. May be they can make it mandatory for a ‘linkedin’ or ‘facebook’ id to be revealed so that the original identity of the person commenting is known and may be he/she will think twice before commenting something, so offensive.

      Lets see if we can tackle this small scale issue first, and then may be we can dream of initiating a change in H1B lottery system by USCIS, which as somebody already commented “USCIS is not concerned about.”

      I hope the message is taken in the right spirit and the participants on this site think over it!

      Reply
      • OMG so nice to see some sensible and mature talk on this blog. I am wondering too why moderator is not stopping such bad language and all this nonsense. I am not using my real name but that does not mean I have a right to say anything terrible on a public forum. I am so with you guys that every one need to calm down and behave themselves.

        Reply
  4. You have very strong raping extincts. You must be one of the fake unskilled fraud Indians who pay to get their h1b filed just so you can escape the slums you live in right now.

    Reply
  5. Yes, you definitely sound like an educated person, befitting that tag of “high-skilled” worker…..no wonder most Americans are extremely opposed to the H-1B program…

    Reply
  6. Calm down man.. don’t get angry and don’t use abusive language even if someone is intentionally defaming your country. Don’t go to the level of that very person.

    Reply
  7. Has anyone given a thought to the Multi-Billion dollar immigration industry? For the past 3 Years around 500,000 H1B applications have been filed. With an average cost of 4K USD per application, lawyer fees included, we are looking at 2 Billion USD for H1 processing alone. Add another billion for L1, and another Couple Billion for GC processing 5 Billion+ USD and we havent yet touched the numerous other visa types, F1, J1, etc. etc. Its a no loss industry with year on year profitable turnover. An average H1B/L1B pays over 1000 USD per Month for social security, Income Tax, and Medicare. An approximate 1 Million H1B+L1B visa holders are there in the US thats a nice handsome 12 Billion USD guaranteed income going to US Government. So we are easily looking at 14-16 Billion Dollars of legal Money going to US coffers , any day enough to put this revenue in top 25 Global companies list.

    Reply
    • Of course. The lawyers are always in the interest of keeping things complicated. But it’s not like immigration is singled out in this way. Legal expenses are much more expensive in other industries, that have nothing to do with foreigners. So no, I don’t think at all that this is some sort of strategic decision to bilk people out of money.

      But yes, whenever lawyers can see a way to make money, they will. For instance, one somewhat sensible mechanism for conducting the lottery was proposed a few years back. The idea was that the USCIS would allow companies to apply for slots before the deadline, and then allocate numbers electronically without the companies filing any employee-specific applications. But that would have meant that lawyers would file only 85,000 applications, rather than 173,000 applications, so they did not go for it. USCIS regularly has stakeholder conferences, where obviously the only people who show up are lawyers….

      Also, on social security and medicare — vast majority of H-1B recipients end up staying in the US permanently, so they will get to withdraw benefits. Some countries also have reciprocity agreements with the US — maybe you should petition your own country to strike such a deal, rather than complaining to a country of which you are not a citizen.

      Reply
  8. Please. Only 10% of the applications by Indians are legit. No one is talking about multiple filings, I’m talking about the body shops and fake consulting companies that you guys run to import idiots unskilled shits to the U.S.

    Reply
    • The best way to resolve this argument is to look at median H-1B salary by country of origin. If the number for Indians is significantly lower, then it suggests something fishy. I honestly do not know if this is indeed the case.

      Reply
  9. Chill dude, keep yourself busy. Work, play video games or something. Every hour is too much. Keep yourself sane, you will need it if ever you get picked in the lottery.

    Reply
    • You might be right, actually.
      There is an easy solution for USCIS :
      Sort out the multiple fillings and increase total approved pettitions by that number
      1 applicant will still choose only 1 employer to proceed further

      Reply
      • You are assuming that USCIS cares about any of this. It doesn’t. We need to understand that being foreigners our opinion counts for zero.

        Reply
  10. I heard that there were around 4L lca’s filled this year. Can someone confirm this news? And that means we wil have close to 4L Applications ? Now its like 1 sperm trying to fuse 😛 Are we that 1 lucky cell ?

    Reply
  11. I think the H1B applications are more than last 2 years. It took 1 working day in 2013 for total number to come out and 3 in 2014. I guess the USCIS is still totaling the numbers so still nothing is out. Any news kindly update.. 🙂

    Reply
  12. How come you can file multi-petitions with multi-employers? I think you have to be full time employee in order to be sponsored for this visa? How can you have more than 1 full time job?

    Reply
    • India’s full of little geniuses. Tsk tsk 🙂

      Just kidding. It’s a highly dubious practice and should be severely dealt with by USCIS. Wishful thinking on my part

      Reply
      • really? there are employers willing to sponsor you before seeing your work? I’ve applied to many employers, and most of them rejected my resume when they knew they need to sponsor me to get working visa after my OPT expired. So I think I have to work for them first, then if I work great, they will sponsor me. I always think employer sponsorship as a reward for my hard work.

        Reply
        • My husband was working in India, got an offer from a company in the US. They applied for his H1B, paid for relocation (including shipping all our furniture from India) and now he has been working there for about 1.5 years. I moved here on L1 through my employer. It probably depends on how badly they need someone with your skills. In his case, they couldn’t find anyone suitable before they made him the offer.

          Reply
          • wow, this is very interesting. It’s against all my thoughts about H1B visa. I’ve heard lots of stories about H1B sponsorship but never heard that company sponsor you before they actually see your work. I always think company will not take any chance to hire someone without making sure they can fit their requirements.

          • How much do you think H1B costs them? Less than a month’s salary. The real risk is that the person might not join.

          • I agree..
            If you are manager level, and big enough, companies are willing to offer H1B before start working, and offer very decent offer package.
            You may have not seen that before, which doesn’t mean this is sth that never happened.

          • I think the real risk is they have to go through so many paperwork and emails and they’re not even sure whether that person can handle the job or not. I think employers don’t want to spend time on someone that they are not sure about his/her abilities to work. Resume is just a paper with lots of good words on it, it doesn’t prove anything.

          • He had a rigorous interview process – just like any new hire. The employers don’t do that much work themselves – they hire attorneys to do it for them. And he is not the only person I know who got here on H1B like that. I realize this is harder now, but that is because of the lottery. They are not very happy about the chances of people getting through lottery.

            And, he is a developer, not a manager.

        • What are you talking man.
          It is quite common.
          I got offers from Cisco, Juniper and Brocade and were ready for sponsoring visa. There was no lottery that year and so, I got it filed by Cisco. Just because they need to sponsor your visa, the rules of recruitment doesn’t change.

          Reply
        • Yes it’s possible. Amazon and Google both have applied for my h1b, and i haven’t worked with either. Besides I am not even in U.S.

          Sponsorship does not require you to have worked for an employer.

          Reply
    • Don’t force your false intelligence here.
      Multiple applications are totally ethical and lawful too, if multiple employers are ready to file for you. Is like, they all want you and the offers are conditional like I replied for your imaginary assumptions in the other post.

      Reply
      • Did I say anything about legal or ethical? I just wondered how people can have more than 1 petition from more than 1 employer before actually working for them.

        Reply
      • This is freaking disgusting… Honestly, I have been in the US since 1999 and I think his practice of multiple H1B applications is quite shady in itself (Well, I have objections to these H1B application from the get go… but don’t worry, we are working with our Congresspeople to get this changed and get these number diminished so that employees get workers here in the US), but seeing someone here boast about doing this practice is just a slap on the face of the US. It is amazing please thing just b/c they come from their Banana Republics and they can just game the system as they do back home is freaking sad!

        Reply
    • Multiple or Duplicative Filings

      According to an interim rule announced on March 19, 2008, employers may not file multiple or duplicative H-1B petitions for the same employee. To ensure fair and orderly distribution of available H-1B visas, USCIS will deny or revoke multiple or duplicative petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker and will not refund the filing fees

      Reply
  13. I see no point in filing multiple petitions. It actually increases competition rather than improving your odds in getting your name picked in lottery. Why you compete with yourself when others are winning on you ??

    Reply
    • Are you sure you are smart enough to be a “high-skilled” worker? Do you not realize that filing petitions with multiple employers — though unethical — DOES improve your chances?

      If you filed 4 petitions last year, at a 40% chance, your overall odds of having at least one accepted would be 87%.

      Reply
      • He probably was arguing that there wouldn’t have been no lottery itself if no one applied multiple times. Interesting thought. That brings me to the question – If an application x gets picked (gets that number they give out), but gets rejected, does it still count towards the cap?

        Reply
      • Forget about unethical part.
        It is unethical only if the documents are faked or you paid for filing the visa. Multiple employers is lawful and 100% ethical.
        All the offers are conditional. ie., the offer is invalid only when visa is approved or only when you join them etc., that is the reason these contracts include “IF” or “in case” in many places. You don’t know much about hiring on visas etc., first get to know more.

        Reply
  14. Hi I have a question about multiple filling.
    I found two different employer in different States. And they filled H-1b for me. So I have multiple application.

    Is it illegal or forbidden?

    Actually I thought It’s okey.

    Reply
    • I think it is okay if two separate employers file for you. As long as you don’t have multiple applications through the same employer, you are fine. All the best!

      Reply
      • Ethically – I don’t see what is wrong. He/She just got multiple offers and the companies applied for visas. Should he have picked the employer before he knows for sure that he can join? I don’t see why not.

        Reply
        • It is ENTIRELY unethical to commit to more than one employer. When you interview with an employer, and then sign a contract, you are saying that you have committed to working for them — unless of course you get into an accident or something like that happens.

          When you WILLFULLY sign two employers, knowing full well that you will ditch one of them, then you are screwing the employer over.

          It is laughable that you don’t see the ethical problem with wasting an employer’s time, money and resources to screw them in the end.

          In a way, it’s rather fitting that outsourcing firms hire the multiple filers — both are highly unethical. Sad part is that the non-Indian crowd gets screwed in the process.

          Reply
          • so this is what you say – Once you join, you can leave the company anytime by giving notice (My current job says 1 day’s notice) But if you accept an offer, you cannot not join even if the actual start date is months later. Interesting…

            I also know of one person whose employer withdrew the offer after he got h1b stamped, before he could join. Is that ethical? I wonder… I know that laying off people is acceptable. But withdrawing the offer? May be they should have laid off a productive employee to hire this potentially productive one?

          • Know more about conditional employment offers.
            Nothing unethical. Unethical only when false documents are used.

        • Are there employer who sponsor you even if you don’t have to work for them? I think you have to be in the company before getting sponsored?

          Reply
      • Most of sponsor companies want application fees. So that’s why It’s wrong and right at he same time.

        And I care about ethic but It’s my second year and I will win that lottery or I will give up.

        Reply
  15. I am wondering if USCIS should find out who submitted more than one application (under different employers). Interview those guys personally and if they are genuinely genius to have multiple companies ready to sponsor them, USCIS should nominate them Greencard without PERM/I-485 paperwork. But if they are faking and using fraud consulting companies, they should be thrown out of the country forever. This will help to control number of applications in years to come, else it will encourage everyone to file multiple H1b taking away the opportunity from a genuine candidate.

    Reply
    • Rather than the convoluted scheme you described, they can very simply assign a unique identifier to each application, and then filter.

      Or, they can go even simpler. Just make it ILLEGAL to apply multiple via petitions, and enforce a $20,000 fine, and revocation on discovery.

      Reply
  16. Insider infor guys.
    USCIS has concluded that they will be deporting all the fraud Indians that are using fake resumes and bodyshops to get H1B.

    Reply
  17. This place is real fun….. H1b is not the end of the world guyz….. even if they recieve 400k application if you are destined you will get it for sure no matter how many application or the Quota size… Relax

    Reply
  18. anxiously waiting for the number of applications filed.

    I filed in H1 2016 under premium processing.

    How soon after the lottery am I(actually the employer) supposed to receive notification whether I got selected in the lottery or not?

    Reply
      • No, that’s incorrect.

        After the lottery is conducted, USCIS will start sending out receipt notices.

        If your employer selected premium, then they will receive an email notification very soon after the lottery — within few days. Last year, all email notifications were sent out by the end of a ~week.

        For non-premium cases, it is paper-based, so those candidates will have quite the wait.

        Last year, I too, held out naive hope that they were still sending out notifications — but for our large firm, the people who eventually got the receipts got email notification very early on — within a week from the time the USCIS announced that they had done the lottery.

        Reply
        • Hi. The moderator hasn’t approved my reply because of the USCIS url but if you see the 1st Apr announcement it says premium files will be opened starting May 11th or so unlike earlier years in April

          Reply
  19. those days are not far where Indians will fight for having a separate country for each state. The composition of india itself is based on ages old norms and principles so weak and confusing in the modern western world. Good luck Indians!

    Reply
    • Countries like China and Pakistan waited for the last 65 years for that to happen. They seem to be fighting within them. But, are emotional and act as one whey they need to act collectively. Yes, there were issues like I want my own state, My language is great, my place is great. But, even the very developed countries have issues at the same par ie., whites and blacks, bla vs bla etc., (I don’t want to mention more here). There is too much freedom in the country (for media), they show the magnified version of every conflict (not denying some bigger ones).
      To give you a better idea the people are bound just like Indian wife and husband whose wedding is arranged by parents. No matter what, divorce is the most impossible thing 🙂
      Hope you got it.

      Reply
  20. Ahhh !!! its official now.
    USCIS is going to discard all the duplicate applications.
    My guess, they are not going to return the fee too for all the applications.

    Reply
    • No, you are wrong. The USCIS will NOT charge fees for applications that were not selected by the lottery.

      Fees will only be charged for applications that are reviewed — regardless of whether eventually accepted or denied.

      And they send a one-page letter telling you that your application was not reviewed.

      Reply
  21. great going till now.
    did some two hours of timepass yesterday, reading the threads.
    so far
    fought by state
    fought by language
    fought by region
    fought by countries
    somebody suggested to fight by religion
    finally, somebody suggested a new fight dev vs qa

    Reply
  22. Hey all- I applied last year, did not get the lottery, life was even better.
    Got a job in another country paying more than US would have given me.
    Any ways I am back here to this site, just to see the comedy of some of the comments here.
    And you did not disappoint me.

    Continue to Keep it classy!

    🙂

    Reply
  23. From an undisclosed source, I’ve been told that they’re considering introducing per-country limit just like for GCs, so India would get only 6k +1.5k visas, and the rest would go to non Indians. That means that basically anyone not from India and China would get an H1b without lottery

    Reply
    • Hope.. Keep hoping. H1b is a non immigrant visa unlike GC. On the contrary, they are seriously considering removing country cap on GCs.

      Reply
      • So that Indians, who cheated to take huge advantage in H1b application, will also take huge advantage in GC application? What a great idea to encourage everyone to cheat!

        Reply
    • Well yes only Indians cheat 🙂 so rest of the world is full of Gandhis ? Why bring in country bro.. play it lite and easy !! Good luck with ur Visa

      Reply
      • People that are not from 3rd world countries such as India are perfectly fine in their countries, so if they don’t get a visa, it’s not the end of the world. Emigration is a way of life for people from India, and they would do anything just to leave the country, instead of staying there and fixing it.

        Reply
        • Emigration is a way of doing it. reduce the crowd at home country by emigrating and then pump back the money.
          don’t fart in the wrong places.

          Reply
    • True. If it wasnt for cheating Indians, we wouldnt have such problem.

      Dont get me wrong, some indians are honest. But rest are cheaters.

      Reply
  24. Have people started hearing back? Tracker (http://redbus2us.com/trackers/h1b-visa-tracker/) says that a few of them are in initial review?

    Reply
  25. I guess the count will be ~180,000, that means 35-40% chance for selection and around 60% chance for rejection, congrats to 64,999 people who will be selected, just leave 1 for me please 🙂

    Reply
  26. Guys..

    Its been three years and i have applied now for the 3 rd time. For all the new comers or first timers to H1B , here is the update ” THIS IS PURE LUCK, YOU GET IT THEN BE HAPPY OR JUST MOVE ON” All of you please keep your expectation VERY low. Being optimistic is different than being an emotional fool.. Have your plan B in place 🙂 coz thats reality for the majority here !

    Reply
      • @Vikram… As long as your company agrees to do so !! I see it like this.. I use my hair to pull a mountain… big deal loosing a hair 🙂 However my life and JOB in india is going fit & fine…

        Another perspective of plan B is for dependents in US who are in h4 and who are applying h1 but still sitting there year after year.I have friend who wasted 2 years doing so thats where plan B is must… Now that the bottle neck is so narrow..its really not worth all the time and risk.. IMO 🙂

        Reply
  27. I daily refer this blog for h1b updates but the rather than genuine updates/news all silly and stupid talks here..you guys do not deserve H1b.may god login into USIC lottery computer and delete their petitions

    Reply
  28. I am from North and can say the following:
    1) This is a wrong platform to talk about north/south etc.
    2) There is no issue with any one from anystate trying to reach US. there are different kind of corruption in which north or south might find their interest.

    just stick to basics, H1B visa issues.
    its a lottery, that’s the only legitimate word now.
    whoever gets it, congratulations….how did he apply was it a fraud way of applying it…none of our business. USCIS job to check it.

    I am applying first time for H1b and wish to see good updates and comments and felt bad when i see some of my north side brothers giving it out and some from my south side brothers reacting …(or vice a versa), we should not have these below level talks here.

    By the way, it is my first ever post on redbus2us and I am wishing all of us a very best luck.

    Reply
    • Funny thing is that majority of my best friends are from South (Tamil+Telugu) and I don’t see any difference in north or south.
      We all humans on earth are beautiful people and should live in harmony and peace.

      Let’s keep this page for H1b only (won’t write anymore on or no social lecture)

      SO, How many application USCIS received in total?
      My guess 115,000
      (because it reaches cap in 5 days, does it mean only 5 days application will be counted )
      also when will people start getting results if they are premium processing applications?

      Reply
    • If you want an outsider’s point of view – no one outside of India cares if you’re from North of South… there’s too many of you guys trying to escape from your country, and large number of you are doing various scams to do so, thus you’re mostly the same for anyone else who is not from India, and the general perception is that you would do anything just to get a visa.

      I do have many Indian friends here in the US, working at top companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple etc. It’s to bad that legit and smart people like those get negative reputation because of scammers that (would like to) work for Infosys, Tata, Cognizant, Wipro and other bodyshoppers.

      Another problem is that people from other countries mostly seek H1-B as a way to advance their careers, but they already live a good life in their home countries. For most of Indians the main purpose of H1-B is to get away from the shitty country they live in…

      Reply
  29. they did not mention total application count anywhere in USCIS site… all are fake news.. may be these people got news from Obama…

    Reply
  30. Hi, April 9th 2015 at 9 .30 AM eastern time, USCIS has announced total count of applications received for lottery – 134327.
    Source is email notification from them. It goes to people who have subscribed.

    Reply

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