USCIS received about 199,000 H-1B CAP petitions for FY 2018. On April 7, USCIS announced that it has received sufficient number of petitions to meet congressionally mandated general and master’s CAP petitions. On April 11, it used lottery or random selection process to select 65,000 general- category and 20,000 master’s category CAP. The agency first selects the advanced degree exemption and then add the unselected petitions to the general category of 65,000 CAP. USCIS will now return all the unselected petitions along with their filing fees, unless the petition is found to be a duplicate filing.
The H-1B CAP petitions for this year are not filed under premium processing (Form I-907) as USCIS has temporarily suspended premium processing of all H-1B petitions, including CAP, for up to 6 months, starting from April 3, 2017.
USCIS will continue to accept and process the petitions filed by current H-1B worker to extend the time remaining, change the terms of employment, allow change of employer or concurrently work in second H-1B position.
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