Atlanta sources reported that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 6, 2018 that it has reached the congressional mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2019. USCIS has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to meet the 20,000 visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap.
Meanwhile the agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not prohibited multiple filings. Accordingly USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap". Further the petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the FY 2019 H-1B cap.
Moreover extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position. Further USCIS, in March, announced the suspension of premium processing of all H-1B visa petitions for fiscal year 2019, saying that the temporary suspension would help reduce the “overall H-1B visa processing time”.
