USCIS announced that it has completed its selection of H-1B lottery winners for fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions. This H-1B season, we have had another successful year with a 66% selection rate and 0 rejections for our clients! Now, we must continue to wait as the government processes these applications and provides approval notices.
For those cases not selected for the H-1B lottery yet, the chance of selection is very low. However, we do not know for sure until USCIS returns the petitions. USCIS cannot provide a definite time frame for returning unselected petitions, but we estimate they will be returned within the next couple of months. USCIS will issue an announcement once all the unselected petitions have been returned. If your application was not selected for the H-1B lottery and you would like a consultation on possible creative, alternative solutions, let us know.
This year, USCIS may transfer some H-1B season applications between the Vermont Service Center and the California Service Center to balance the distribution of cases. If your case is transferred, your attorney will receive a notification in the mail regarding the transfer. Further, Premium Processing of H-1B applications continues to be suspended until further notice. We will continue to track the availability of Premium Processing and the status of all selected petitions to keep our clients updated and informed. Congratulations to all the lucky H-1B lottery winners!