USCIS has received sufficient H-1B petitions to reach the FY2014 cap and the 20,000 master’s degree cap. USCIS will not accept cap-subject H-1B petitions after 4/5/13. USCIS will conduct a lottery for petitions received through 4/5/13, but the lottery date is not yet known.
 
Almost everyone predicted that the 2014 H-1B cap would reach earlier this year than last year which reached in June considering the changing business and economic environments but not as early as the first few days of April. In order to deal with this kind of problem, the USCIS initiated a rule-making process requiring pre-registration of H-1B cap employers indicating how many cases and for which beneficiary(ies) they will file before the employers can file actual petitions. Proposed regulation was published but finalizing of the rule making process by drafting and submitting Interim Final Rule to implement the new process had been pushed off and delayed. One of the factors could have been no recent experience of reach of the H-1B cap on the first day or first five business days in April. But the reality knocked the door of the USCIS sooner than anticipated. In a way, implementation of new pre-registration process may also help the employers to avoid the kind of panics which they had to go through this year. Overnight delivery services must have made a lot of money during about one week period of time but they also experienced pains at the same time for not being able to handle the avalanches of packets properly and timely tarnishing their business images, not to mention the employers who had to go through literally panicking situation. Well, for good or bad, it is all over now and employers will just have to relax and wait for the results of lottery. Gradually sweet spring breeze is coming in the air and we may take more time to take a walk outside or drive a car to enjoy refreshing air with windows down.