USCIS To Resume Premium Processing Service for FY2019 H-1B Cap Cases on 1/28/2019

Today, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it will resume premium processing service on Monday, January 28, 2019, for still-pending FY2019 H-1B cap petitions. USCIS’s announcement notes that petitioners who have received requests for evidence (RFEs) for pending FY2019 cap petitions should include their RFE response with their premium processing upgrade requests.

The announcement further states that the previously implement suspension of premium processing service will remain in effect for remaining categories of H-1B petitions until agency workloads permit premium processing service to resume.

D&S will continue to monitor the H-1B premium processing suspension and provide updates as they become available.

USCIS Announces that Data Entry for all FY2019 H-1B Cap Cases is Complete

USCIS has confirmed that data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the computer-generated random selection process ("the lottery") has been completed. The Agency will now begin returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the lottery. 

USCIS has indicated that, due to the high volume of H-1B filings, the Agency cannot provide a definite time frame for returning unselected petitions but that they will issue an announcement once all the unselected petitions have been returned.