USCIS completes data entry of H-1B cap petitions

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced today that it has completed data entry of H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the lottery and will now begin returning all petitions that were not selected.

Key points:

• Due to the high volume of petitions received, USCIS is unable to give a definite time frame for the return of petitions, but will announce when all unselected petitions have been returned.
• Employers should wait until they have received a receipt notice or a returned petition to inquire about the status of a petition.
• USCIS is transferring some H-1B cap-subject petitions from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center to balance workloads. Employers whose petitions are transferred will receive notification in the mail and should address subsequent correspondence, including requests to upgrade to premium processing, to the service center that will be processing the petition.

BAL Analysis: Petitions that were not selected will be returned along with the filing fees. For petitions selected in the lottery, employers should continue to anticipate receiving decisions on premium-processed H-1B cap-subject cases by the end of May and to wait until summer for decisions on regular-processed cases.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact BerryApplemanLeiden@bal.com.

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