USCIS has announced that it received 199,000 H-1B cap petitions for fiscal year 2018.
It conducted a random, computer-generated lottery to select the petitions that will be considered under this year’s H-1B cap on April 11. Our office has started to receive H-1B receipt notices, and we anticipate receiving them throughout the next several weeks.
The H-1B cap is limited to 65,000 petitions, with an additional 20,000 for people who received an advanced degree from an accredited U.S. institution.
Last year, USCIS received 236,000 H-1B petitions. This means that there is a 15% drop in H-1B cap filings. We anticipate this is caused by: large IT consulting firms filing less H-1B cap cases and managing their workload through overseas staffing; smaller IT consulting firms filing less petitions due to growing concerns about the adjudication climate and their ability to document contracts to sustain the periods of employment listed on the H-1B filing; and other companies choosing not to file H-1B petitions due to the perception that the lottery was not worth the expense.
If you have any questions, please contact your Klasko representative.
