H-1B Work Permit Filings: Will You Beat the Cap?

Seyfarth Synopsis: This blog post is intended to enable employers to identify any current employees and employment candidates who may require H-1B work permit sponsorship before October 1, 2019. We recommend that employers identify any such candidates as soon as possible, as on April 2, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions for the fiscal year 2019 H-1B quota (which begins on October 1, 2018). It is likely that, as in previous years, USCIS will receive H-1B requests far in excess of the annual quota within the first week of filing eligibility, in effect resulting in a random lottery-type selection process. This occurred last year in the 2018 H-1B cap, which was reached in the first week of filing eligibility based on USCIS receiving over 199,000 H-1B cap petitions. The most conservative and recommended approach is to submit all 2018 cap cases during the first week of filing eligibility, which begins on April 2, 2018.

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