H1B Cap 2014 reached, Lottery next!

UPDATE: Lottery for H1B Visa Cap FY 2015 was conducted on April 10, 2014. Check out our analysis of the H1B lottery process & results.

H1B Cap/Quota for 2013-2014 season has been reached on April 5 2013. USCIS announced today that it has received more petitions than allowed under statutory quota for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. It was also announced that more than 20,000 petitions have been received by USCIS from those holding US Masters degree in qualifying fields (advanced degree exemption).

USCIS will reject any H-1B petitions filed under regular cap or advanced degree exemption cap starting April 6, 2013. A computer lottery will be conducted by the USCIS at a future date (to be announced) to randomly select both advanced degree exempt and regular petitions for FY 2014. Here are the outlines of the lottery process:

1. The lottery will be conducted to select 20,000 advanced degree exempt petitions first.
2. The lottery for 65,000 regular cap petitions will be conducted next. Any advanced degree exempt petitions NOT selected by the first lottery (read # 1 above) will be included in this lottery.
3. ALL petitions received between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013 will be included in the lottery and have equal chances of selection, which means that the petitions received on April 1 will have SAME chances of selection in the lottery as those received on April 5.
4. USCIS will continue to accept any cap-exempt petitions (Such as those from Non-profit organizations, universities etc).

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