H-1B Visa Cap For FY 2016 Reached: USCIS

08 Apr 2015

H-1B visa cap was reached very quickly than ever before. The U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Service (USCIS) have received a record number of petitions for H-1b visa.

This is the third year in a row that US received more than sufficient number of applications within the first five working days. However, the exact count of the visa petitions is not yet revealed and is expected to announce the number later this week.

Once the applications received by USCIS reaches the sufficient numbers, USCIS will then use the computer-generated process, popularly known as lottery which will randomly select the petitions required to meet the cap of 65,000 visas for general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.

The application intake for H-1B visa started from 1 April 2015 for the 2016 fiscal year (FY) that commences from 1 October. The United States grants 85,000 H-1B visa petitions per year under its two caps, with 20,000 slots allocated for the advanced degree grads of US educational institutions.

Reportedly, most visas are requested by the IT service organizations that need H-1B workers for outsourcing services. Most H-1B visa applications are filed by the employees of Walmart, which makes use of IT contractors for the outsourcing purpose. Walmart is one amongst the companies wishing to increase the cap levels of the H-1B visa. However, congress is trying its level best to raise the cap of H-1B visa.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait whether the cap would increase within the next few years and bring smiles in the face of employees.

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