USCIS Receives Sufficient Number of H1B Petitions to Reach FY 2020 Regular Cap

On April 5, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the 65,000 H1B visa regular cap for FY 2020 [PDF version]. The USCIS will now move to determine whether it has also received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the 20,000 H1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, more commonly known as the “master's cap.”

Having reached the H1B visa cap for FY 2020, the USCIS “will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings.” We discuss prohibited multiple filings in a separate article [see article].

The USCIS will, however, continue to except H1B petitions that are exempt from the FY 2020 H1B cap. For example, “[p]etitions filed for current H1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2020 H1B cap.” In addition to these petitions, the USCIS will continue to accept and process H1B petitions filed to (quoted):

Extend the amount of time a current H1B worker may remain in the United States;
Change the terms of employment for current H1B workers;
Allow current H1B workers to change employers; and
Allow current H1B workers to work concurrently in a second H1B position.

We discuss issues pertaining to the FY 2020 H1B cap filing season in a separate post which is updated regularly [see article]. To learn more about the H1B program generally, please see our growing selections of articles on work visas [see category] and AC21 [see category].

We will continue to post updates here at myattorneyusa.com on the FY 2020 H1B cap season.