Late Thursday, USCIS released updated information regarding the H-1B filings as of April 2 and 3.
According to their initial count, USCIS received 133,000 “unique pieces of mail containing H-1B petitions,” which is lower than their initial estimate of 150,000 cap-subject H-1B cases. It appears from their press release that the 133,000 count includes both cases subject to the 65,000 H-1B cap and the extra 20,000 cap for holders of Master’s and higher degrees from U.S. universities.
As of Wednesday, USCIS announced, it had sorted only only 32,755 of the total petitions, 4,703 of which are for holders of U.S. master’s degrees. Should that sample of sorted cases be a truly random sample, then we can project that USCIS received approximately 19,000 “Master’s Cap” cases on April 2 and 3. Because “Master’s Cap” cases were sent to a different delivery address, however, there may be more “Master’s Cap” cases already sorted out, which would mean that more “Master’s Cap” numbers remain available. USCIS warns that it will take “a substantial amount of time” to sort all of the H-1B petitions, and has not yet released any information about how many of the 20,000 “Master’s Cap” numbers may remain available.
We will release more information as it becomes available.
