US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions projected as needed to reach the congressionally-mandated 65,000 FY 2020 regular cap. Next, USCIS will determine if the agency has received enough petitions to meet the 20,000 US advanced degree exemption master’s cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions which are not prohibited multiple filings. USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions exempt from the cap including petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap and who still retain their cap number, as well as H-1B petitions for extensions, change in terms of employment, change-of-employer, and concurrent employment. To receive future updates about the H-1B program, USCIS encourages applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season email updates on the H-1B Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Cap Season page.

UPDATE APRIL 12, 2019: On April 10, after USCIS selected enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally-mandated regular cap, USCIS determined that the agency had received enough petitions projected as sufficient to meet the 20,000 US advanced degree exemption master’s cap. In total, USCIS received 201,011 H-1B petitions during the filing period beginning April 1, including master’s cap cases. The agency additionally notes that in accordance with the new H-1B regulation, USCIS first conducted the selection process for H-1B cap-subject petitions submitted for all beneficiaries, including master’s cap cases, and afterwards from the remaining eligible petitions selected a number projected to reach the advanced degree exemption.