On April 14th, United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) conducted the computer-generated random selection process on H-1B petitions received within the first five business days of April, and has subsequently released tentative timelines for the next stages of the FY2009 cap-subject H-1B process.

According to USCIS, approximately 163,000 H-1B petitions were submitted in the first five days of the eligible filing period, with 31,200 of those petitions qualifying in the U.S. Masters H-1B category. The first “lottery” was run to select the 20,000 qualifying US Masters H-1B petitions. Those US Masters petitions that were not selected in this drawing were then included in the lottery to select the additional 65,000 H-1B visa petitions.

USCIS has indicated that “petitioners whose properly-filed petitions have been selected for full adjudication should receive a receipt notice dated no later than June 2, 2008.” While not explicit, the implication is that USCIS is giving itself until June 1, 2008, to enter the “accepted” H-1B petitions into the system and notify the petitioners (or their attorneys) of this acceptance. USCIS also indicates that it is giving itself this long to return “rejected” H-1B petitions as well. We will provide an update if USCIS issues further clarification.

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