On May 3, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2018 H1B cap-subject petitions selected in the H1B lottery [link]. Accordingly, the USCIS will begin returning H1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the H1B lottery.
The USCIS cannot provide a definite time frame for the return of unselected H1B cap-subject petitions. For this reason, the USCIS asked H1B petitioners not send inquiries about the status of submitted H1B cap-subject petitions until receiving a receipt notice or the returned unselected H1B petition. The USCIS will issue an announcement once it has completed the process of returning all unselected H1B cap-subject petitions.
In a further announcement, the USCIS stated that it is transferring a selection of H1B cap-subject petitions from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center. The reason for this is “to balance the distribution of cap cases.” Petitioners whose cases are transferred will receive notification by mail. Such petitioners should send all future correspondence regarding the transferred H1B petition to the Service Center processing the petition.
We recently updated the site with information about the completion of the H1B lottery for H1B cap-subject petitions counting toward the fiscal year 2018 H1B cap [see blog]. Furthermore, stakeholders should remember that as of March 3, 2017, the USCIS temporarily suspended premium processing for all H1B petitions for up to six months. Please see our full article to learn more about the temporary suspension of premium processing for H1B petitions [see article].
