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H-1B Visa Demand Spike Predicted

Summary:U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 cap on April 1, 2014. Cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 cap on April 1, 2014. Cases will be considered accepted on the date that USCIS receives a properly filed petition for which the correct fee has been submitted; not the date that the petition is postmarked. 

U.S. employers filed 124,000 new petitions in less than a week in April 2013. Myvisajobs predicts that there will be significant demand for new H-1B visas this year, matching or surpassing 2013. read more 

USCIS will usually keep the window open for at least five business days to allow for weather-related delays and other issues. That means the agency will accept valid applications until at least April 7 even if it's already over the cap. 

If USCIS receives more petitions than it can accept, USCIS will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit. USCIS will reject petitions that are subject to the cap and are not selected, as well as petitions received after it has the necessary number of petitions needed to meet the cap. 

H-1B cap petitions can be filed with the Premium Processing Service Request beginning from April 1, 2014, but adjudication of such Premium Processing H-1B petition will start only beginning from April 15, 2014. read more about premium processing in 2013

The cap (the numerical limitation on H-1B petitions) for FY 2015 is 65,000. In addition, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals with U.S. master's degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap of 65,000. For more information about H-1B Visa Cap and Premium Processing Service, please visit H1B Visa or USA Visa section.

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