On April 6, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received:

USCIS will reject any H-1B petitions received after April 6, 2018 that are subject to either the FY2019 cap or the master's cap. For more information, see USCIS: H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Cap Season.

This is the sixth year in a row that the H-1B statutory and advanced degree caps were exhausted during the initial five-day filing period. It continues the trend that existed before the economic recession began in 2008, with a limited number of employers able to secure H-1B status for employees and a large number of employers foreclosed from the H-1B category for 18 months or more.

All petitions received between April 2 and April 6, 2018 will be entered into a computer-generated random selection process, known as the lottery. USCIS will first randomly select the 20,000 petitions for the master's cap. Any master's petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the statutory cap of 65,000 for FY2019. USCIS did not yet announce the date of the lottery, and is not currently providing the total number of petitions received.

USCIS previously announced that premium processing of all H-1B petitions is suspended for up to six months. For information related to FY2019 H-1B filings, including premium processing suspension, see Legal Update, Annual H-1B Cap Season for FY2019 Begins April 2nd.

USCIS will continue to accept petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. H-1B petitions exempt from the cap include:

For more information on the H-1B cap, see Practice Note, The H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification.

Update: On April 17, 2017, USCIS announced that it completed basic intake and the random selection process of the more than 199,000 H-1B petitions submitted during the April 1 to April 5 filing period. Petitions that were not selected in the lottery will be rejected and returned to the petitioner or the petitioner's counsel if a G-28 notice of representation accompanies the petition. USCIS will accept petition fees only if the petition is accepted in the lottery, or for a rejected petition if duplicate petitions were filed.

While the number of petitions received this year fell by approximately 36,000 from those received for FY2017 in April 2016, USCIS still received well more than double the number of petitions to available H-1B visas. This continuing pressure on the H-1B nonimmigrant visa classification presents a significant issue for employers that rely on the H-1B to hire and continue the employment of foreign professionals. Employers should identify workers who need and cannot obtain H-1B status as soon as possible, and identify a strategy for each worker. For more information, see Employer Options When H-1B Visas Are Not Available Checklist.

Update: On May 15, 2018, USCIS announced that it has completed data entry for all FY2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in its computer-generated random selection process, and that it will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected.

Update: On July 30, 2018, USCIS announced that it has now returned all FY2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the computer-generated random selection process.