H1B filing season is drawing near. Fiscal year 2020 applications for work to commence on October 1, 2019, must be filed on April 1, 2019. Because there are several steps and extensive preparation that go into an H1B filing, we recommend getting started in the next few weeks, ideally no later than March 1. USCIS has implemented a lottery system of sorts to pick which applications are selected for processing. There’s an annual cap of 85,000 visas available each year, and for the past six years the cap has been exceeded threefold on the first day applications can even be filed. Thus, only one in three applications are selected for processing. The remaining two-thirds are returned; and in the absence of another option for work authorization, the beneficiary-employee will most likely have to depart the US. If you are hiring foreign nationals, now is the time to start preparing for your H1B filings.