Home » US Immigration - Visas » H1B Visa » USCIS Official News : H1B Visa 2016 Cap Reached – Will have Lottery

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 :

   

Other Articles

389 Comments

  1. In IGATE almost 99% cases were rejected.. And strange thing is everyone received rejection email on same day. I.e. 13th May 2015.
    And content of an email is “This is to keep you informed that the USCIS has concluded the H-1B lottery and we have a final confirmation on the cases that were selected

    With regret, we would like to inform you that your case was not selected in the Random Selection process carried out by the USCIS this year.”

    Reply

Leave a Comment