On April 7, 2014, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the numerical limit for the H-1B Cap has been met. The USCIS confirmed that it received 172,500 H-1B petitions in one week, exceeding the 65,000 maximum for regular H-1B petitions and the 20,000 maximum for individuals with a U.S. Master’s degree or higher (collectively known as the H-1B Cap). The USCIS implemented a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit of 85,000 total, and those petitions that are not selected in the lottery will be rejected. As was the case last year, employers whose petitions are not selected in the lottery should learn the results by May, approximately 30-45 days after the first available filing date. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering, and computer programming.
