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USCIS received 124,000 H1B Visa 2014 Petitions – Official Lottery Update Results

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As predicted by us earlier on USCIS official news update date, USCIS did an official press release today disclosing the details of overall petitions received and lottery process followed, including results. Below is a brief summary of the H1B Visa 2014 news release.

USCIS Official News : Summary of H1B Visa 2014 Lottery Results press release

  • Big News: For the first time in USCIS history since 2008, H1B Visas 2014 cap reached within the first week of filings, i.e, first week of April.  You can check out US Economy and H1B Visa Lottery
  • Total H1B Petitions received :  USCIS received a total of 124,000 H1B Visa petitions for fiscal year 2014.
  • Lottery Information : USCIS conducted a random computer generated random selection process, also called as lottery, on April 7th to select the petitions needed to meet the regular cap of 65,000 and masters cap of 20,000
  • Lottery Process followed: As described in our detail H1B Visa Lottery process, USCIS followed the same thing.  First USCIS conducted lottery process for Masters quota petitions and then the petitions not selected in masters lottery were merged with regular quota pool and random selection process was conducted for remaining pool to select 65,000 petitions.
  • Petitions Not Selected in Lottery  : If your petition was not selected in lottery, USCIS will reject and return the petition along with the filing fee, except for duplicate petitions.
  • Premium Processing for H1B Visa 2014 : To facilitate the data entry process and meet the timelines, USCIS will begin premium processing for H1B Visa 2014 from April 15th.
  • Non-Cap Subject Petitions Accepted :  USCIS will continue to accept non-cap subject petitions i.e, that have already been counted towards to the cap, including petitions filed under below category
    • H1B Visa stay extensions
    • Employee terms changes for H1B visa worker
    • H1B petitions filed for Change of employers
    • H1B petitions filed for concurrent working for more than one employer

Did I miss anything ?

Do you have any questions ? What are your thoughts ?

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Author
Satheesh Kumar Ilu
Satheesh Kumar Ilu, commonly known as Kumar, is the founder of RedBus2US.com. He is an Immigration and Study Abroad expert. He holds an MS from the University of Houston–Clear Lake and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He studied, lived, and worked in the U.S. and Singapore for nearly two decades, and has traveled to over 25 countries.

   

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11,589 Comments

  1. I am still waiting for a decision for my h1b petition 🙁

    center – california
    date received by USCIS – April 1, 2013
    type – regular

    anyone with similar petition hear back yet? also how will we be notified of the receipt? email or mail?

    thanks!

        • LOL, according to what the majority has said here, regular people will be notified by Mail. The attorney will receive it, where as premium candidates will be notified by email through their attorney. Honestly, there isn’t much you can do. No way to know how USCIS operates and whether they are just sending receipts at the moment for petitions that made it trough the lottery. We just have to wait for an announcement and see. Apart from that, your attorney/employer will let you know once they have any update whatsoever. That’s what the immigration specialist in my company told me.

          • Don aur PC is love story khatam hui to aage badte hain lol

            Don. what a big reply to the lady! good going my man 😀

            Hopefully ADE Regular will be out soon and we will make it

    • Same here…got a receipt number today. employer gets notified…hang in there…mine was in masters cap

  2. Don’t quite understand why people are complaining about the lottery like anything can be done about it. I wasn’t even aware it would happen this year until I happened to stumble upon an article published on the WSJ. Didn’t know that it had happened in the past either. Well, so be it. If you get it, good luck; if not time to go back home at least for me because I don’t qualify for an OPT Extension.

    It’s just a waiting game, and until then there isn’t much you or I can do apart from speculating. That said I don’t quite understand why the number of Advanced Degree applications wasn’t provided, this would have given people with Masters an idea of their chances. It could be 30k, 35k, 40k – who knows?

    My employer informed me that apart from the H-1B, there isn’t much I can do. Wasn’t prepared for this, but there’s nothing we can do. Not in our control. I really hope I get it because I love my job and I love the city I live in. Also for those who aren’t sure if their employer filed a petition, please ask for a copy. I didn’t even ask for one, but I got a copy of the petition in my mailbox either last Monday or Tuesday (I picked it on Tuesday) but it was sent on the 29th.

    • We are in the same boat, the same situation here, i’m on OPT which expires very soon, no way to stay except for H1B. Good luck to us!

          • Yeah me too didn’t pass the PhD comps. Graduated in May, got OPT in August, got a sweet job in November, moved to a different city for the job. It was a struggle because for 5 months I was sitting idle, when I landed the job and told they’d sponsor me, I was over the moon. Didn’t expect this at all…

          • I did so much for this visa, I paid 500$ for the evaluation to get the best of my degree from back home, and I paid double fee to a lawyer for him to work really fast on this. Just can’t imagine going back home. So worrying!

          • Wow, I didn’t pay anything. The company paid for it. We’ll just have to wait and see. Having a US Masters gives you a better chance.

          • DON VIVA & MAD TEACHER,

            Guys if you are Masters ADE Applicants I am very positive you will get through this. If you applied with PP then you will get the email before Friday and for regular processing it might take a while for receiving the receipt by mail. Keep your hope and u guys will get it.

  3. Just a silly question guys, do i get a receipt# only when it is accepted in lottery or is it something i get when petition is sent to USCIS.

  4. Why is USCIS not revealing number of Masters cap application and general cap application. They already conducted lottery and gave total count of 124000 but why there is no words on number on each category. Why are they hiding this information? Is there something going on behind the door? Just curious ! Anyone has any opinion on this?

    • There is nothing going behind the door. Keep calm. Most masters will make it, the rest will be rejected. There’s no trick. It’s a lottery and there will be a random selection, it is not like they open it, check your name, and throw away your application. Masters students have a better chance. Just hope they received less than 25,000 AD Applications. Odds will be good. So chill, beta.

  5. How many PP, Masters Cap from California Center have heard back today???
    How many are still in the same boat as me and waiting?
    Thanks for update…

    • Same here, I heared that they will replay depending on the time they open your package, we have till the end of this week, if we didnt hear from them, we should think about other plans, God help us!

      • Thanks for the response.
        I’ve seen you on this board all day. Do you remember if there were any people with M, PP, CA that have recived theirs?
        Good luck to you too…

        • PP-Master-California. I haven’t heard and freaking out.

          someone heard back. this person filed in california see below, i copy-pasted his post from earlier.

          “mutex April 9, 2013 at 5:08 pm
          I have been through the most stressful hours in my life. For our friends still waiting, please keep hope.

          My company applied for me and one of my coworker (General cap in Premium Processing, California Center).
          He received an email this morning with his receipt number. Not me. I asked the attorneys if they had something for me. They had nothing. I was sure my case had been rejected. But I just received my receipt number! USCIS don’t send receipts all together.

          If you are still waiting there is still hope!”

          • He is general cap, premium.
            My lawyer was right. Vermont is first sending all the masters premium, while Cali is sending them all…
            I’m having one of the worst days ever, same as you guys, but there is still a lot of us in the same boat and that means there is still hope…
            Keep updating if you hear something new…
            Thanks.

          • You don’t really need to lose hope so soon, lalap, as I see it, CSC couldn’t send out all the e-mails within one day.

    • It seems like CSC began to take action this afternoon. I got my WAC NO. from my lawyer just minutes ago. I filed Regular Quota, Premium Processing, California center, it said it will adjudicate my case within 15 calendar days. Guys who filed PP, don’t worry, you will hear from your lawyer soon.

  7. I’m CA center, Masters, Premium Processing. Didn’t hear anything yet.
    Contacted lawyer who said that she has heard back from several cases, but they were all Vermont, premium processing with masters degree.
    Vermont has special mailing address for premium and masters cap while California uses one address for all the cases. My lawyer is hoping that California center is taking longer to generate receipts than Vermont. She said we have to hear by the end of the week if selected.
    Good luck everyone and keep updating information!!!

  9. When will the Regular processing ADE quota people start receiving their receipt. Any idea . PLEASE UPDATE …

  10. I havnt receive any update from the lawyers yet. Filled in CSC as Masters pp.
    I am completely freaking out. Anybody with any emails yet.

  11. Any one has idea when ADE for regular processing will get update about their selection . Any tentative date when they will start receiving their receipt

  12. Can you all please tell us in the below format. So that it will be easy for us to track it..

    Date delivered to USCIS
    Date of receipt received
    Service center name
    Types of visa (Master/master pp/ regular/ regular pp)

  15. I lost the H1B lottery in 2008 and went back to school fro PhD. Now applying for the second time and lottery again! If I loose again, screw US! (MS-PP(?)-CSC)

  16. I am curious, the ones who got the acceptance, could you please let us know when was your petition was received by uscis?

    I am still waiting for my status, my petition was received by uscis on April 2nd.

    • Mine was sent on 3/29/2013. I don’t know when my application actually reached there. But I got receipt this morning stating date received: 4/8/2013

  17. I just got my approval notice , I’m not sure whether mine is premium or not.

    Good luck to all and wish you’d receive your shortly.

    Receipt Number: WAC-**-***-*****

    Date Received: 04/08/2013

    Petitioner: ************* NETWORKS INC

    Beneficiary: ************

    DOB: **/**/**

    Classification sought: H-1B

    The original Form I-797 Receipt Notice will follow in the mail. The California Service Center will adjudicate these case within 15 calendar days starting April 15th as per their earlier announcement. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

      • Date Received: 04/08/2013 : Looks like this is the date USCIS accepted the petition for processing. Atleast, the status tracker in USCIS site suggests this.
        Acceptance

        On April 8, 2013, we received this I129 PETITION FOR A NONIMMIGRANT WORKER and we e-mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case. Please follow any instructions on this notice. This case is being processed at our CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER location. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

  18. Guys, did anyone received rejection notification ? That is application not selected under lottery…just want to know the rejection rate…

    Thanks and all the best.
    Congrats to all who received the receipts.

    • usually good news comes first. so rejections will only start going out in 2 -4 weeks, depending on whether PP or regular.

  19. Do I have right to have my receipt number from the employer? As far as my employer stated, they will track status for me.

  20. Overall i feel this year masters will go through H1B a lot than others. Also, i am seeing many results below from Vermont. I filed regular, non master, non PP – waiting for results. This is a stressful race & experience.

  23. If they are going to pass the “immigration reform” bill by next week. Why don’t they consider it from this fiscal year and raise the H1 cap to 115K ?

    Wouldn’t tat be Gr8 !!

  24. I have been through the most stressful hours in my life. For our friends still waiting, please keep hope.

    My company applied for me and one of my coworker (General cap in Premium Processing, California Center).
    He received an email this morning with his receipt number. Not me. I asked the attorneys if they had something for me. They had nothing. I was sure my case had been rejected. But I just received my receipt number! USCIS don’t send receipts all together.

    If you are still waiting there is still hope!

    • ok u gave us all a pnic attack..bachelor cap n normal processing started getting there receipt numbers…OMG i hope i get mine tmo 🙁

    • Hi Mutex,

      I filed to california center for PP regular cap as well. I hope I will be as lucky as you to receive the receipt number soon! Thanks for the updates. Praying hard!

      • I don’t understand why they need time for the receipt number? They could have generate them along with the lottery. It looks like there are some manual processing involved.
        I won’t be surprised if they issue receipt until Friday, so stay optimistic.

  25. Got the receipt WAC# from attorney for CSC. Regular quota Premium Processing.

    All the best to everyone.

  26. AD – PP – Vermont, Nothing yet
    Asked attorney, she said they haven’t got anything for my case but they did received EAC for other cases…I have a patience for tomorrow only. If I don’t get my EAC by tomorrow. I will start packing my bags.

  27. USCIS did not update the extact count Masters and Regular cap.

    2008 they did announce the spilt number and this time they did not and conducted the lottery in a hurry on sunday

    sounds unusual.

  28. It would be helpful if we Please follow this pattern when reporting an update:

    Processing: premium/ regular
    Quota: regular/AD
    Center: csc/vac
    Method: email/post
    Date receipt number received:

  29. If anyone can please post last 5-6 digit from their EAC receipt no we can guess whats going on.

  30. Hi All,

    I just wanted to update that i got my receipt number from my application filled at vermont center. My petition was premium processing under masters cap.

  31. Has anybody receive receipt for Master’s /regular processing at Vermont please update really worried…

    • Masters with a regular processing petition will take sometime to get a receipt, since emails are not sent out generally for the regular processing. I guess till the end of next week we should have an answer.

      I am an ADE applicant with the petition submitted at VSC.

      • Raghu :- For Regular processing ADE one will receive letter as you said no Email communication is there for regular processing . How we can track whether we are selected any ways of checking it ….

        • I don’t think we can track anything till we have a receipt number. I know it fucking sucks, the wait, the uncertainty, but oh well, there are jobs all over the world and if you believe in yourself, then you can get a job anywhere and do well anyplace. At the same time, I do hope we can make it through the lottery, which is a frustrating and anxious process, but not in our hands.

  32. Has anyone received the receipt number for PP regular cap from CSC?

    Thanks!
    Best of luck for everyone!!

  33. Guys,
    Relax.I got my receipt no around 9:00 am and I have tracking all receipt no before mine and after.So far I have tracked 2500 receipt no and after that it stopped.

    Don’t know if they are using different series or what but looks like they haven’t released more than 2500 receipt no so far.

  34. 2 to 4 weeks waiting time is soooooo long..i envy those who got there results..hurmph..God give me patience AND good news as well iA..lol

  36. Just checking how many here are advanced degree, PP and are yet to receive receipt? I am one of them. Anyone else?

      • All,

        From the number of responses here and a few in a couple of other threads within this blog where I posted this, it appears that there is a descent number of advanced degree holders that have PP and have not received a response as of yet. Comparing to those who have (and have posted it so far) the ratio does not seem to match probability of success for advance degree category. It leads me to believe that receipts will keep on coming tomorrow perhaps Thursday as well for PP. I know this is very stressful time for all but hang in there!

  37. To all no PP applicant I think you won’t receive an email because the email from USCIS says:

    Please do not reply directly to this message. The e-mail
    account used to send this message is used by the Service
    Center only to send messages notifying filers of premium
    processing case information.

  38. I am not sure why it is taking time?

    Is is because communication time gap between lawyer to employer to emplopyee.
    As I understand USCIS should have a system to automatically send email to all selected applications with EAC number and it should not take more than a minute for these emails to send and receive.

    Or they are allocating Receipt numbers in some sort of lots or manually ?

    • if they want to do what you said, they would have to input all the email addresses from the hardcopy application first

      otherwise they need to open the envelops, probably scan everything, run all the input process, and then send the notification email; so it would take significantly longer to process each application than just sending the email

      • lottery= USCIS conducted a random computer generated random selection process. So they already have some details about each application in the system.

        possible they have not inserted applicant’s email addresses for each such case and hence they are taking time to send email to all selected once.

    • Couple of people have posted that they received EAC for regular quota/PP processing.
      I think you should hear something in next couple of days

    • I havent recieved any info. im in regular cap with premium processing . Attorneys mentioned that if selected they will cash out the check by end of week and we can know that

  42. There is absolutely no news from CSC.I heard hear and there a few applications got approved.

    Im not sure whats happening with CSC.

    ANybody?

      • Yes,I have seen that but the speed at which the vermont center is sending is not seen in california center

          • Checked with lot of my friends regarding updates from CSC. None got any .
            But lot of my friends who got their’s picked in VSC.

            Mine is vth CSC, How uncertain things could transpire into…

    • My assumption is that CSC havent yet started processing applications.
      i have heard any cases from CSC as of now , accepted. Except one on this blog, he might be wrong may be !
      So keep ur fingers crossed, donno what the hell is going on
      Luck for all. Wish all the best, everyone deserves H1 .

      • the reason why CSC is taking time to process is due to the time zone they are in . Vermont Center being in ET started its process early. Look out for more CSC update through the evening today till 7-8pmET.

        • Its already 1:50pm PST and we should have by now got enough information from CSC.

          All that we can do is to wait…

  45. Guys…this is killing me now…stress stress!!!
    Have anyone received receipt in Regular cap?
    Tentative date ?

    Congratulations to all who have received the receipts. All the best!!!

  48. Why does the below wikipage say that a number quite different than 86k new visas were issued in past years. E.g.109k, 86k, 76k, 106k new visas were approved for FY 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 respectively. Also, why does it say more new visas were issued through consular offices than number of new visas approved? E.g. 129k, 110k, 117k, 129k new visas were issued through consular offices for the same respective years.

    Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa

    Extract:
    In FY2004, the cap reverted to 65,000 when the temporary increase passed by Congress in 2000 expired, where it has remained ever since and has been hit each year. FY2004 was also the first year in which 20,000 additional visas for foreign workers with a master’s degree or higher from a US institution became exempt from the annual cap. In its annual report on H-1B visas, released in 2006 November, USCIS stated that it approved 130,497 H-1B visa applications in FY2004 (while 138,965 new visas were issued through consular offices) and 116,927 in FY2005 (while 124,099 new visas were issued via consular offices).[11][12][13][14][15][15][16][17] For FY2007, with applications accepted from 2006 April 1, the entire quota of visas for the year was exhausted within a span of less than 2 months on 2006 May 26,[18] well before the beginning of the financial year concerned. The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas were exhausted on July 26.
    For FY2008, the entire quota was exhausted before the end of the first day that applications were accepted, April 2.[19] Under USCIS rules, the 123,480 petitions received on April 2 and April 3 that were subject to the cap were pooled, and then 65,000 of these were selected at random for further processing.[20] The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas for FY2008 was exhausted on April 30. In FY2008, a total of 276,252 visa applications (109,335 initial, 166,917 renewals and extensions) were approved, and 129,464 new initial visas were issued through consular offices.
    For FY2009, USCIS announced on 2008 April 8, that the entire quota for visas for the year had been reached, for both 20,000 Advanced and the 65,000 quota. USCIS would complete initial data entry for all filing received during 2008 April 1 to April 7, before running the lottery, while 86,300 new visas were approved.[21] In FY2009, 214,271 visas were approved (86,300 new initial visas, and 127,971 renewed and extended)[22] and 110,367 initial H-1B visas were issued from consular offices.[23]
    For FY2010, USCIS announced on 2009 December 21, that enough petitions were received to reach the year cap, while 76,627 new visas were approved, and 117,409 new visas were issued through consular offices.[24]
    For FY2011, USCIS announced on 2011 January 27, that enough petitions were received to reach the year cap on January 26, and 106,445 new visas were approved, while 129,134 new visas were issued through consular offices.[25]
    For FY2012, USCIS announced on 2011 November 23, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota on November 22.[26]
    For FY2013, USCIS announced on 2012 June 12, that enough petitions were received to reach the year cap on June 11.[27]
    For FY2014, USCIS announced on 2013 April 5 that enough petitions were received to reach the year’s quota any time between April 1 and April 5.[28]

    • Hritik,
      They might be referring to both cap-exempt and cap-subject H-1s. This means the count includes H-1 extension, H-1 transfer etc.

  50. Congratulations to all ho got EAC receipts from USCIS. Best of luck to all others and me as well.

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