FY 2015 H-1B Cap Season Begins

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today began to accept H-1B cap filings for employment in Fiscal Year 2015, which begins October 1, 2014. 

Competition for FY 2015 H-1B employment is expected to be very high. The 65,000 standard cap numbers and 20,000 additional numbers for holders of U.S. advanced degrees are likely to be exhausted quickly. 

The Cap Lottery 

If, as anticipated, USCIS receives more than enough cap petitions to use up the entire quota between today and Monday, April 7 – the first five business days of the filing season, which is considered a single filing period – it will run computerized lotteries to choose the cases that will be processed to completion. 

The first lottery will select enough cases to meet the advanced-degree cap exemption of 20,000. USCIS will then place the remaining cases – including advanced-degree cases not selected in the first lottery – into a second draw to select enough filings to fill the standard H-1B quota of 65,000. Cases not selected in either lottery will be rejected and returned. 

In the unlikely event that the cap is not reached during the first five business days, USCIS will accept filings on a day-by-day basis until the quota is filled. 

Processing Slowdowns Expected 

USCIS will experience receipting and processing slowdowns during the initial days of the filing season. It could take several weeks or more for USCIS to open up each filing, enter case data into its systems, conduct the selection lottery and issue filing receipts. 

Because of the anticipated high volume of filings, employers may wait longer for filing receipts than in the past. Last year, the agency began to issue receipts for premium processing cases shortly after the close of the initial filing period in early April and completed data entry and receipting for standard cap cases in early May. 

Premium Processing of Cap Cases Delayed 

This season, USCIS will postpone the start of H-1B cap premium processing until no later than April 28. Though USCIS may issue premium filing receipts soon after cases are received, adjudicators will not begin working on premium cap cases until April 28 at the latest – a later target date than last year, when premium service was postponed until mid-April. 

If an employer selects premium service, USCIS has fifteen calendar days within which to approve, deny or request additional evidence in the case. The postponement of the start of the premium processing clock means that employers may not receive case decisions or requests for evidence on premium cap cases until as late as May 13. 

Premium processing services for all other eligible employment-based petitions are to remain available as usual. 

What This Means for Employers 

USCIS expects an extremely high volume of H-1B cap cases this year, which will mean that the chances of selection in the lottery will be lower than last year, when just over 62% of standard cap filings were accepted. 

High volume will also mean slower processing. Employers should prepare to wait longer than in previous years for filing receipts and case dispositions for both premium and standard filings.