USCIS to begin FY 2015 H1-B application processing soon

According to the latest news reports, the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), the authority in the US mandated by the US government to deal with immigration and citizenship matters, will begin accepting  H1B applications (or, petitions) only from April 1, 2014. The cap is set for the fiscal year FY 2015. Also, according to the same authority, cases will be deemed as accepted on the date that USCIS receives a filed petition with the correct fee, and which petition was filed properly and correctly procedurally, etc., but not on the date the application was sent or postmarked.

The cap for the petitions for this year (FY 2015) as decided /mandated by the Congress is 65,000. Also, of course, those petitions filed on behalf of those applicants who have a higher degree than a bachelor’s is exempt from this cap and there is a limit on the number of petitions for this category and this stands at 20,000. The agency, as in the past, is expecting to receive more than the capped number very early, by April 07. And, it is also ready to use a random selection method to quickly reach the caps under both categories and shortlist those who will be issued the visas in both of them.

Also, the department has also determined that there will be a high level of demand for the processing of premium level visas. So, for premium processing of H1B visas, USCIS will start the processing of this category of visas no later than April 28, 2014.