On April 7, 2015, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received:

USCIS will reject any H-1B petitions received after April 7, 2015 that are subject to either the FY2016 cap or the advanced degree cap. This is the third year in a row that the H-1B statutory and advanced degree caps were exhausted during the initial five-day filing period. It continues the trend that existed before the economic recession began in 2008, with a limited number of employers able to secure H-1B status for employees and a large number of employers foreclosed from the H-1B category for 18 months or more.

All petitions received between April 1 and April 7, 2015 will be entered into a computer-generated random selection process, known as the lottery. USCIS will first randomly select the 20,000 petitions for the advanced degree cap. Any advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the statutory cap of 65,000 for FY2016. USCIS is not yet able to announce the date of the lottery, given the high number of petitions received, and is not currently providing the total number of petitions received. USCIS previously announced that premium processing of cap-subject H-1B petitions will begin no later than May 11, 2015.

For information related to FY2016 H-1B filings, see Legal Update, Filing for New H-1B Visas for FY2016 Begins April 1st.

USCIS will continue to accept petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. H-1B petitions exempt from the cap include:

For more information on the H-1B cap, see Practice Note, The H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification.

Update: On April 13, 2015, USCIS announced that it completed basic intake and the random selection process of the nearly 233,000 H-1B petitions submitted during the April 1 to April 5 filing period. Petitions that were not selected in the lottery will be rejected and returned to the petitioner or petitioner's counsel if a G-28 notice of representation accompanies the petition. USCIS will accept petition fees only if the petition is selected in the lottery, or for a rejected petition if duplicate petitions were filed.

The number of H-1B petitions received this year is 60,500 more than received in FY 2015, a 35% increase (see Legal Update, USCIS Reaches H-1B Statutory Cap for FY2015). The increasing pressure on the H-1B nonimmigrant visa classification presents a significant issue for employers that rely on the H-1B to hire and continue the employment of foreign professionals. Employers should identify workers who need and cannot obtain H-1B status as early as possible and identify a strategy for each worker. For more information on employing foreign nationals, see Practice Note, Hiring and Employing Foreign Nationals in the US: Overview.