Xie Law Immigration Newsletter – April 2018

  • H-1B Cap Reached

USCIS announced that the H-1B Cap for FY2019 has reached on April 6th.   For this year, USCIS received 190,098 H-1B petitions during the filing period.   We shall expect to receive the I-129 receipts for the cases selected by the H-1B “lottery”.

Below is the official announcement:

On April 11, USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2019.

USCIS received 190,098 H-1B petitions during the filing period, which began April 2, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. USCIS announced on April 6, that it had received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 and the master’s cap of 20,000. USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions with their filing fees unless the petition is a prohibited multiple filing.

USCIS conducted the selection process for the master’s cap first. All unselected master’s cap petitions then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 cap.

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 towards the FY 2019 H-1B 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.

 

EB-1 priority date (for first reference candidates) shows a halt for available visa numbers for Chinese and Indian applicants.

EB-2 priority date (for Advanced Degree Professionals and Exceptional Ability Individuals) for Chinese applicants will advance to September 1, 2014.  The cut-off date for the Indian EB-2 applicants will move to December 22, 2008.  Please note that, if demand increases significantly in response to the advancement, future retrogression of EB-2 cut-off dates for Indians and Chinese is still possible.

EB-3 priority date (for Professionals and Skilled Workers) will advance to May 1, 2008, for Indian nationals.  For Chinese applicants, it will advance to June 1, 2015.

EB-3 priority dates for the ‘Other Workers’ category will advance to May 1, 2007, for Chinese; advance to May 1, 2008, for Indians.

 

Notes:

  • “C” = Current
  • “1st” refers to the First Preference in Employment-Based Immigration category (EB-1), i.e., persons of “extraordinary ability” in the sciences, arts, education, business, and athletics, outstanding professors and researchers and certain executives and managers;
  • “2nd” refers to the Second Preference in Employment-Based Immigration category (EB-2), i.e., professionals holding advanced degrees, or persons of exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business (NIW applicants);
  • “3rd” refers to the Third Preference in Employment-Based Immigration category (EB-3), i.e., skilled workers and professionals holding baccalaureate degrees;
  • “Other Workers” refers to the unskilled worker under the Third Preference in Employment-Based Immigration category;