USCIS has confirmed that they have received a sufficient number of petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa “regular” or “Bachelor’s” cap for Fiscal Year 2020.
USCIS will next determine if they have also received a sufficient number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, the “Master’s” cap.
As a reminder, the agency recently implemented a new rule amending the regulations governing the H-1B cap. Under the new rule, USCIS runs petitions through the lottery process by first selecting all individuals through the regular cap of 65,000 visas and then selecting the projected number of petitions needed to reach the advanced degree exemption through the second lottery among only U.S. advanced degree holders who were not selected in the regular cap lottery. The agency has stated that this new order in which the lottery is run will likely increase the probability of selection for H-1B advanced degree beneficiaries.
Once both caps have been met, USCIS will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions (with the exception of fees for cases rejected as prohibited multiple filings).