Annual H-1B Visa Quota Exhausted

Posted: April 8, 2014

Lottery to be conducted; visas will not be available to new applicants until October 1, 2015

The United States Citizenship & Immigration Service (the USCIS) has announced that in the first week of the application period for new H-1B visas for Fiscal Year 2015 (that is, for employment beginning October 1, 2014), it received more visa petitions than the number of visas that are available for the year, in both the “standard” and “U.S. advanced degree” categories. Consequently:

the USCIS will conduct a lottery to determine which petitions will be processed from among those received between April 1 and April 7, 2014; and

no new H-1B visas for cap-subject positions will be available for employment that begins before October 1, 2015.

Note that this development does not affect visas in “cap-exempt” categories such as petitions submitted by institutions of higher education, and petitions for extensions of stay or changes in employers or terms of employment.

For questions about this alert, or about any other immigration matter, please contact Attorney Adam S. Mocciolo in our Bridgeport office, at (203) 330-2128, or amocciolo@pullcom.com.