USCIS ran a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) on April 9th, for all FY 2017 cap-subject petitions received through April 7, 2016. The agency conducted the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected were part of the random selection process for the 65,000limit.
As announced on March 16,2016 USCIS will begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than May 16, 2016.
As you may already know, like last year, USCIS had again reached theH-1B Cap for the fiscal year within the first week of the filing period. On April 7th, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had announced that it had received sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the Cap for the FY 2016. USCIS also said that it had received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions under the advanced degree exemption. Actually, USCIS received about nearly 236,000 H-1B petitions during the filing period.
Please note that USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.