U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has returned all fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the computer-generated lottery.

Employers are reminded that it may take up to two weeks to receive all the returned petitions. A total of 190,098 H-1B cap-subject petitions were received during this year’s filing period. Data entry of all the H-1B cap petitions selected in the lottery was completed May 15. The agency then started to return rejected petitions.

BAL Analysis: Employers who submitted H-1B cap petitions during the April 2-6, 2018, filing period should receive either a receipt notice or a returned petition for their sponsored employees by Aug. 13. BAL has not yet received all returned petitions or receipts. As such, employers should continue to work with BAL if they have not received a receipt or a returned petition. In the meantime, BAL will continue to work with employers on possible alternatives for foreign workers who were not selected in the lottery.

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

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