On April 10, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) used a computer-generated random selection process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated regular cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption for fiscal year (FY) 2020. After completing the random selection process for the regular cap, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also determined that it has received a number of petitions projected as sufficient to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 201,011 H-1B petitions during the filing period, which began April 1, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. USCIS announced on April 5 that it had received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-1B regular cap of 65,000.
In accordance with the new H-1B regulation, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) first conducted the selection process for H-1B cap-subject petitions submitted on behalf of all beneficiaries, including those that may have been eligible for the advanced degree exemption. USCIS then selected a number projected to reach the advanced degree exemption from the remaining eligible petitions. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will reject and return all unselected petitions with their filing fees unless the petition is a prohibited multiple filing (PDF, 119 KB).
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2020 H-1B cap. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: