On May 3, 2017 the USCIS announced that it has completed the receipt and data entry of all fiscal year 2018 H-1B cap cases. This means that the CIS should be issuing the last of the receipt notices for cases selected under the cap in the next several days. If a petitioner does not receive a receipt notice in the near future, the H-1B petition likely was not selected. The USCIS will now begin to return H-1B cap cases that were not selected. We anticipate that the cases will be returned over the course of the next several weeks. The USCIS expects to issue an announcement once all the unselected petitions have been returned.
The USCIS is transferring some H-1B cap subject petitions from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center to balance the distribution of cap cases. If a case is transferred, a notification should be sent to the petitioning company and the attorney of record via the U.S. postal service.
Contact your Foster immigration attorney for more information on potential alternative work authorization categories for any beneficiaries not selected in the H-1B lottery. As always, Foster will continue to monitor the issuance of receipt notices and the return of rejected petitions and will provide appropriate updates via future Immigration Update© bulletins and via our firm’s website at www.fosterglobal.com.