USCIS to Return Unselected FY 2019 H1B Cap-Subject Petitions

On May 15, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated that it completed data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H1B cap-subject petitions that were selected through the H1B lottery [PDF version].

The USCIS will now begin returning all H1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the fiscal year 2019 H1B lottery. Due to the large number of H1B petitions that were filed for fiscal year 2019, the USCIS stated that it cannot provide a “definitive time frame” for the return of unselected petitions. Accordingly, the USCIS asked petitioners to not send inquiries about the status of their unselected H1B petitions until they receive a receipt notice or until the unselected petition is returned. Once the USCIS returns all unselected H1B petitions, it will issue an announcement.

Finally, the USCIS stated that it may transfer some of its cap-subject H1B petitions between the Vermont Service Center and the California Service Center in order “to balance the distribution of cap cases.” Petitioners whose Form I-129 H1B cap-subject petitions are transferred will receive notification of the transfer in the mail, and they should subsequently send all correspondence to the USCIS service center handling the petition. We discuss USCIS workload transfers in a full article on site [see article].

We have previously discussed the completion of the fiscal year 2019 H1B lottery on site [see blog]. Please note that premium processing for all H1B petitions subject to the fiscal year 2019 cap remains temporarily suspended [see article].