USCIS completes lottery selection for fiscal year 2020 H-1B quota cases

Pasricha & Patel
Apr 14, 2019

Link: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-completes-h-1b-cap-random-selection-process-fy-2020-and-reaches-advanced-degree-exemption-cap

Pasricha & Patel Takeaways

USCIS has announced that on April 10, 2019, it has completed the random drawing and selection process for the Fiscal Year 2020 H-1B quota petitions, and it determined that it has selected enough petitions to fill both the H-1B regular cap of 60,000 cases, as well as the 25,000 U.S. advanced degree exemption cases (Master’s cap).

USCIS also announced that it has received 201,011 H-1B cases during the first five (5) business days in the first week of April. This far exceeds the annual quota of 65,000 regular H-1B petitions, with an additional 20,000 reserved for U.S. Master’s or above degree holders. Even as this year’s H-1B quota filing period comes to an end, it should once again be noted that even while the U.S. economy continues to grow at a steady pace, the need for qualified workers continues unabated. And just like in years past, it is unfortunate that many qualified applicants who wish to join the U.S. workforce and help contribute to the continuing growth of the U.S. economy will not be picked in this year’s H-1B lottery process.

This is a very unfortunate waste of human capital and resources and technical know-how that the U.S. may have otherwise benefited from, except that many of these applicants will decide to seek their fortunes at other countries who are very eager to attract and recruit to help grow their own economies.

For those who may wish to consider alternatives to the H-1B visa program, there are various visa program possibilities, subject to conditions and pre-requisites, such as the L-1 intracompany transfer visa; the E-1 treaty trader/E-2 treaty investor visa; the E-3 Australian nationals visa; the TN visa, for example, that a foreign national may wish to consider.

We encourage interested applicants to contact our firm Pasricha & Patel,LLC at (855) 593-6200, or email: info@lawimm.com , and schedule consultation in order to discuss your options further.