WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced a preliminary
number of nearly 163,000 H-1B petitions received during the filing period ending on April 7, 2008. More
than 31,200 of those petitions were for the advanced degree category.
USCIS expects next week it will conduct the computer-generated random selection process, beginning
with the selection of the 20,000 petitions under the advanced degree exemption. Those petitions not
selected under the advanced degree category will join the random selection process for the cap-subject
65,000 limit.
USCIS will reject, and return filing fees for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, unless
found to be a duplicate. USCIS will handle duplicate filings in accordance with the interim final rule
published on March 24, 2008 in the Federal Register.
USCIS will provide regular updates as the processing of FY 2009 H-1B cap cases continues.