H-1B Cap Officially Reached

It comes as no surprise that USCIS has reached the congressionally-mandated H-1B visa cap for FY2019. This includes both the Regular and Master's caps.

Cases received today, Friday, April 6th, will be included for consideration when the lottery is conducted.

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, will also not be counted toward the FY 2019 H-1B cap.

The news did not contain specifics on how many cases have been received.  We expect that information to be made public in coming weeks and it will offer an interesting insight into the impact that heightened restrictions have had on demand for the visa.  The lottery is expected to be conducted next week, consistent with prior years.