Business Immigration Insights

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has just announced that it has completed what is commonly known as the “master’s cap” H-1B lottery.  The agency confirmed, as was widely anticipated, that sufficient petitions were received during the first five business days of April 2019 to satisfy this additional pool of 20,000 H-1B numbers, which are set aside for workers who possess an advanced degree from a U.S. college or university.  As we previously reported, the “regular cap” of 65,000 numbers was also met during the 5-day filing window.

USCIS also just released the total ...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has reported receiving enough petitions during the first five business days of April 2019 to meet the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B regular cap for fiscal year 2020.  USCIS will next determine if it has received enough petitions to meet the 20,000 U.S. advanced degree exemption or “master’s cap.”

This year, for the first time, the agency ran the regular lottery first, with the stated purpose of ensuring that more of the limited annual H-1B numbers went to those with advanced U.S. degrees.  We will provide an update once the agency ...