USCIS Announces the H-1B Cap for FY 16 Has Been Reached
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced yesterday the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 has been reached. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will use a computer program to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the General Category and 20,000 visas for the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will first randomly select petitions for the advanced degree exemption. All unselected advanced degree petitions will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general limit. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap petitions. Due to the high number of petitions USCIS must process they are not able to announce the date they will conduct the random selection process.
The H-1B Cap filing period ended on April 7th. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:
- Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
- Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
- Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
- Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.
