H-1B Re-Cap
- April 10, 2015
- Richard Newman
On Wednesday April 1, 2015, the US Citizenship & Immigration Services started accepting new H-1B petitions for the government’s fiscal year 2016 (FY16) which begins on October 1, 2015 and ends on Sept 30, 2016. The time for acceptance of H-1B petitions was open for 5 days and ended on Tuesday April 7, 2015.
USCIS stated that about 233,000 petitions had been accepted in all. The first 20,000 US master’s cases chosen are exempt from the quota which then allows for 65,000 H-1B petitions to be randomly selected – 85,000 in all. On Monday April 13, USCIS ran the computer-generated random selection process to determine which cases would be accepted for processing. They further stated that premium processing cases that are selected would not begin processing until early May.
For cases that gets selected and approved, the H-1B starting date will be October 1, 2015.
Students: Filing for Change of Status from F-1 Student to H-1B visa status.
Students in F-1 visa status who are on their one year of Optional Practical Training (“OPT”) get special “cap gap” protection between April 1 and Sept 30, 2015. There are 2 typical OPT situations:
- Where the student’s OPT expires after April 1 but before Oct 1, and their case gets selected in the lottery, then the regulations automatically extend their OPT time through Sept 30, 2015. The assumption is that their case will get approved to start the H-1B status by Oct 1. (Unfortunately, this is not always the case since many petitions are issued requests for additional evidence (RFE), and then the H-1B approval can often be issued after Oct 1.)
- Where the student’s OPT expired before April 1, but are still in their final 60 day grace period of F-1 status on April 1 (and filed for “change of status”), the student get an automatic extension of their F-1 status but not OPT work permission. So they can remain in the United States until they receive a final response on their H-1B petition. But they cannot work until their status is changed to H-1B on October 1, 2015.
In both OPT situations, if the H-1B is approved, then they can remain in the US until Oct 1 when their status is changed to H-1B visa. If their H-1B case is denied or withdrawn, then the OPT status ends 10 days after denial or withdrawal, and the grace period ends 60 days after date of denial or withdrawal.
Students do not need to file an application or pay a fee to receive cap gap extension. The extension is granted automatically at no cost. If necessary, students can obtain an I-20 from the Designated Student official at their school indicating the F-1 cap gap extensio
Students whose H-1B cases are not selected in the lottery receive no additional OPT extension.
Dates the H-1B Cap was reached from FY 2006 – FY 2015.
Fiscal Year Date Cap Reached Days from April 1 until Cap reached
2006 08/10/2005 131
2007 05/26/2006 55
2008 04/03/2007 2
2009 04/07/2008 6
2010 12/21/2009 264
2011 01/26/2011 300
2012 11/22/2011 235
2013 06/11/2012 71
2014 04/05/2013 4
2015 04/07/2014 6
For more information or questions, please contact:
Law Office of Richard A. Newman
521 Fifth Avenue
32nd Floor
New York, NY 10175
212-986-0947