On April 6, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it reached the congressionally mandated H1B cap of 65,000 H1B visas for fiscal year 2019 [PDF version]. Furthermore, the USCIS also received enough H1B petitions to meet the H1B “master’s cap” of 20,000 for fiscal year 2019.
Because the fiscal year 2019 H1B cap has been met, the USCIS will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject H1B petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings. To learn about prohibited H1B cap-subject multiple filings, please see our article on Matter of S- Inc., Adopted Decision 2018-02 (AAO Mar. 23, 2018) [see article].
The USCIS will continue to accept and process H1B petitions that are not subject to the H1B cap.
Furthermore, the USCIS will accept and process H1B petitions filed for current H1B workers “who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number…” To this effect, the USCIS will accept H1B extension of stay petitions, amended H1B petitions to change the terms of employment for current H1B workers, petitions to change employers for H1B workers [see article on H1B portability], and petitions to allow current H1B workers to work concurrently in a second H1B position.
Please continue to follow our site for more updates on the H1B category and related nonimmigrant work visa categories.
