Visa Lawyer Blog
Clients are calling my office in the past week or so, reporting receipt of H1B receipts. A few days later same clients report getting same receipts for the same case. Other clients report receipts issued on the 5th or 6th of April, what is going on here?
The USCIS announced on April 16, 2007, that some of the regular H1B cases subject to the cap will be issued two receipt notices. The reason for this is that the USCIS issued receipts for some (but not all) cap-subject cases filed on April 2nd and 3rd. They changed the procedure before they issued receipts for all cases. Under the new procedure, the USCIS stopped issuing preliminary receipt notices once they realized that the H1B cap had been met on the first day these cases were accepted. The USCIS conducted a random, computer-generated lottery on April 12, 2007 to select the H1B cases that would receive the limited cap numbers.
We are in the process of receiveing receipts for cases that were selected, I assume that if no receipts are received by our office, by early next week clients should assume that the cases were not selected.
Any of the cases selected for this year’s cap under the computer-generated lottery system will receive a receipt. Therefore, all of the initial, preliminary receipts were voided and only those H1B petitions that were selected in the random, computer lottery were issued new receipts on or after April 12, 2007. Anything received before should be considered void.
Only a receipt issued after the April 12th selection process serves as a valid indication that a case was selected within the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 cap. If a pre-April 12th receipt was issued, it is possible that the USCIS will provide a second receipt, if the filing was selected under the lottery system for processing on April 12th. It is also possible that, even though a preliminary receipt was issued, the case may not have been accepted for processing as a result of the computer-generated lottery. In such instances, the case will be rejected and should be returned to the employer or employer’s representative in the next few weeks.
We will keep you informed as new information becomes available.