April 1 is the first day U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept H-1B cap-subject petitions for next year's allotment of visas for foreign national professionals in specialty occupations. Cap-subject H-1B visas become available each year on October 1 — and filings with USCIS can be made no sooner than six months in advance.

With the H-1B cap reached within the first five days of filing in the last two years (April 2014 and April 2013), there continues to be pent up demand for H-1B visas. It is anticipated that even more H-1B visas will be filed this year due to this increased demand. Therefore, it is very important that employers pay attention to these timing issues to ensure that any H-1B visas that are needed for October 1, 2015, are filed on April 1, 2015.

Outlined below is more information about the April 1 H-1B filing deadline. Additional information about H-1B visas and the cap can also be found in our previously recorded November 12, 2014, webinar: "H-1B work visas: What Every Business Needs to Know for Filing an April 1 H-1B Cap Petition."

Background on H-1B Cap

Per immigration rules, a limited number of H-1B work visas are available each year. Under the regular H-1B cap, 65,000 H-1B visas are available. An additional 20,000 are available under an exemption for foreign nationals (usually F-1 students) who have graduated from a U.S. college or university with a master's degree or higher. Cap-subject H-1B visas become available each year on October 1 — and filings with USCIS can be made no sooner than six months in advance.

The H-1B visa is the most popular visa category for employers to obtain work authorization for key foreign national employees and is available for a wide variety of professional positions, including engineering, biology, computer science, accounting, teaching, sales/marketing and many other professional occupations. Foreign nationals who will fill a professional "specialty occupation" position can qualify for H-1B status. A "specialty occupation" is an occupation that requires at least a bachelor's degree (or the equivalent) as a minimum requirement. The foreign national must have a bachelor's degree (or the equivalent) in the field of specialty in order to qualify for H-1B status.

It is important to note that not all H-1B cases are subject to the cap. People, not petitions, are to be counted under the H-1B cap. Under this rule, if the foreign national listed on the petition does not already have H-1B status, the H-1B visa petition counts against the cap. Petitions not subject to the cap include H-1B extensions, petitions to change H-1B employers and petitions filed by institutions of higher education.

H-1B Cap Allotment Reached Immediately in 2014

USCIS will accept H-1B cases for each fiscal year (FY) until the entire allotment of 65,000 and 20,000 have been exhausted. In the last two H-1B filing seasons (FY2014 and FY2015), the allotment of H-1B visas was reached — at the time of filing in April — much earlier than in previous years. Until April 2013 (FY2014), the H-1B cap for the entire fiscal year was not reached immediately upon the April 1 filing. From 2009-2012 (FY2010 to FY2013), the allotment of H-1B visas lasted for several months after the initial filings made on April 1. For example, for FY2013, the cap was reached on June 12, 2012.

During last year's process, USCIS announced on April 7, 2014, that 172,500 cap subject H-1B petitions were received between April 1 and April 7. During last year's H-1B cap season, because there were sufficient cases to meet the annual cap of 65,000 for regular cases and 20,000 U.S. advanced degree exemption cases, USCIS conducted a computer-generated random selection process. The "lottery" was conducted on April 10, 2014. USCIS first conducted the random lottery of the 20,000 H-1B cases eligible under the master's cap exemption. Those cases not selected as one of the 20,000 under the master's cap exemption were then included in the random lottery for the 65,000 allotment. Those cap-subject petitions not selected during the random lottery were then sent back, with filing fees.

Although USCIS announced prior to April 1, 2014, that it would start processing premium processing cases on April 28, 2014, USCIS actually started receipting, processing and approving H-1B cases before April 28, 2014. With premium processing cases, USCIS will send out email receipt notices stating that USCIS has started processing the case under its premium processing service. Receiving such an email notification indicates that a case was selected under the random lottery. Additionally, for cases filed without premium processing that were selected in the lottery, USCIS sends a hard copy receipt notice by mail. Such receipt notices were issued up to several weeks after the April 10 lottery.

U.S. Employers Must Prepare Now for April 1 Filings

With the H-1B cap reached immediately upon filing last year, this means that even more filings will be made on April 1 this year (for FY2016 H-1B filings). Therefore, companies looking to hire H-1B workers must start working on H-1B petitions now to be ready for an April 1 filing with USCIS. Like last year, it is anticipated that the allotment of regular and master's cap cases will be exhausted within the first five business days of April 1, and that USCIS will again conduct a random lottery.

Under current rules, USCIS will accept all H-1B petitions properly filed during the first five business days before conducting a random selection process, so that petitioners need not file H-1B petitions exactly on April 1. USCIS will also implement premium processing after the random lottery is conducted. As in the past, if a case is not chosen, USCIS will return the petition along with all applicable filing fees, including the $1,225 premium processing filing fee.

U.S. employers are strongly urged to start preparing for H-1B cap season and the filing of April 1 H-1B petitions. Although the H-1B petitions cannot be filed to arrive at USCIS until April 1 (or within the first five business days of April), U.S. employers can start to gather information and prepare the necessary paperwork for filing the USCIS.

A key piece of paperwork needed for the filing of the H-1B petition is the approval and certification of the labor condition application (LCA) with the Department of Labor. DOL is currently processing LCAs within a seven-business-day time frame. Therefore, employers should anticipate this wait time (at least) in receiving an approved labor condition application. Employers should start working on LCAs — and the other necessary paperwork — now to avoid crunch time issues immediately before the April 1 filing date.

A recommended timeline is:

• January: Finalize list of potential H-1B candidates and start gathering information and documentation on who will need an H-1B cap-subject petition for October 1, 2015. 
• February: Prepare, post and submit any Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) to the Department of Labor.
• March: Prepare and finalize H-1B forms and supporting documents. 
• March 31: File your H-1B petition to be received at USCIS by overnight mail delivery on Wednesday, April 1. 
• April 7: Last day that USCIS will accept cases under the five business day rule.

Prepare Strong Cases to Avoid Requests for Evidence

Due to the significant increase in filings, USCIS issued more Requests for Evidence (RFE) in FY2015 than in past years in part to ensure that only clearly approvable H-1B cap cases were approved. It is important to start preparing cases early to identify and resolve any potential issues before filing to avoid these RFEs. When RFEs are issued, approval of the H-1B petition is delayed — sometimes significantly — and can even be months beyond the initial October 1 start date listed in the H-1B petition.

In some of these RFEs, USCIS has asked for additional information about the position and the qualifications of the H-1B worker, including additional evidence that:

• The position required a bachelor's degree or equivalent in a related field and was a specialty occupation under H-1B rules;
• The degree held by the candidate was in a field related to the occupation;
• The candidate's education and/or experience was equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree; and  
• The petitioning employer would supervise and control the work of the H-1B employee.

Again, these are just a few examples of the additional evidence USCIS has been requesting on H-1B cap cases. With such scrutiny, employers should start to prepare now for H-1B cap season.

Conclusion

With an increase in demand for H-1B visas and an anticipated random lottery to be conducted, employers need to prepare and file any needed H-1B petitions to be received by April 1, 2015. Faegre Baker Daniels professionals will provide further updates on H-1B cap information that you might need to consider if an H-1B petition is filed on April 1 and is unfortunately not selected by USCIS in the random lottery.