U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year ("FY") 2014. USCIS also announced that it had received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. As a result, USCIS will not accept any more new H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption.

Since USCIS received more H-1B petitions than the quota permits, the agency will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the "lottery") for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013. USCIS will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. Due to the high number of petitions received, USCIS is not yet able to announce the exact day of the random selection process. Also, USCIS is not currently providing the total number of petitions received, because it is continuing to accept filings today.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the FY 2014 cap. The agency promises to provide more detailed information about the cap next week.