Skip to Content
News

USCIS Receives 201,011 H-1B Petitions and Completes Lottery for FY 2020

Today USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process, commonly known as the “lottery”, to select enough H-1B petitions to meet the regular cap and the U.S. advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) for FY 2020. After completing the lottery for the regular cap, USCIS also determined that it has received a number of petitions to meet the 20,000 H-1B master’s cap.

USCIS announced earlier this week that that it received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-1B regular cap of 65,000. This year USCIS received 201,011 H-1B petitions, including both regular and master’s cap petitions, during the filing period which began April 1st. This is an increase from last year, with 190,098 H-1B petitions filed during the filing period for FY 2019.

This is the first year that USCIS first conducted the selection process for H-1B cap-subject petitions submitted on behalf of all beneficiaries, including those that may have been eligible for the master’s cap. USCIS then selected a number projected to reach the master’s cap from the remaining eligible petitions. Next, USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions along with their filing fees unless the petition is a prohibited multiple filing.