The FY 2018 H1B CAP HAS BEEN REACHED

As anticipated, USCIS today announced that in the first week of filing it has already received sufficient H-1B petitions to fill the year's quota. As a reminder, the filing period opened on Monday April 3, 2017 and today on April 7, 2017 has already closed.  Assuming that as in past years USCIS receives far more applications than available H1Bs, a random computerized selection process (referred to as a lottery) will be conducted.  For those with a US Masters Degree, they will be eligible for an additional allotment of H1Bnumbers, and therefore will be entered in the additional, as well as regular selection lotteries.   This year, for the first time, USCIS disallowed premium processing for H-1B submissions. It is not known how this will impact the timing on H-1B selection.  Notifications will likely be issued starting in late May or June.