US H-1B lottery over, processing in May

This is over thrice the official cap of 65,000 - for the most sought-after work visa for IT professionals, including from India. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it received over 2,36,000 H-1B petitions during the filing period, which began April 1 for the Financial Year 2017, in just five days of opening up the process. 

The draw of lots would determine the successful applicants for the 65,000 Congressional mandated H-1B visas and another 20,000 for those foreign students who completed their higher studies from a US academic institute in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

On April 9, the USCIS used a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the general-category cap and the cap under the advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap. The agency conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All unselected advanced degree petitions then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit, it added. 

The USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions with their filing fees, unless the petition is found to be a duplicate filing. It will begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than May 16. H-1B visa, popular among Indian techies, is used by American companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialised knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.