On Friday, May 17, 2019, USCIS announced that it had completed its random selection of H-1B petitions sufficient to meet both the 65,000 “regular” cap and the 20,000 exemptions for the “U.S. master’s cap.” In total, the agency received 201,011 H-1B cap-subject submissions — up from last year’s 190,098.

USCIS has completed mailing receipt notices for selected petitions, but adjudication has not yet started. For petitions filed using premium processing, the adjudication process starts today. USCIS will now start the return of unselected petitions and their filing fees and will announce when this process has been completed.

Finally, to better distribute the workload, some petitions may be transferred between the California and Vermont Service Centers and notifications will be sent accordingly. Stay tuned for additional updates regarding the FY2020 H-1B cap lottery selection and adjudication trends.