Special thanks to Elliot & Mayock LLP for this article.

CIS Raffles 85,000 H1B Visas Among 163,000 Applicants; Results by June

On April 14th, Citizenship & Immigration Services [CIS] conducted its computer-generated random selection process to select the 85,000 “winners” of new H-1B Temporary Professional visas for FY09. 163,000 petitions were filed between April 1-7 for new employment starting October 1, 2008, the beginning of the 2009 Fiscal Year. CIS expects the process of receipting the winners and returning the petitions of those not selected [with uncashed checks] to take until the end of May. Those winners who have paid an additional $1,000 for Premium Processing [PP] will have their petitions adjudicated by Monday, April 28th.

Over 31,000 of the total filings were for the U.S. University Advanced Degree allocation, limited to 20,000 annually. Those 11,000+ who were not selected in that group had a second chance to obtain H-1B status, since they were all included in the remaining pool of 143,000 who competed for the 65,000 basic allocation. The number of petitions filed is not significantly different from last year, when there was about a 50/50 chance of successful selection.

An unspecified number of petitions have been “wait-listed” this year in the event that certain selected petitions ultimately end up being ineligible for approval. Those wait-listed will be advised via letter, and 6 – 8 weeks later will either be selected and receipted OR have their petition returned.

Other winners who desire an expedited decision may pay the $1K for Premium Processing as soon as a receipt notice is received from CIS. The major utility of PP is that an H-1B approval notice permits international travel on current visa [F-1 Student; J-1 Exchange Visitor, etc] with change of status effective October 1, 2008 [if requested]; international travel while a visa petition is pending at CIS may cause “abandonment” of the change of status aspect [although the underlying H-1B visa petition gets approved].

F-1 Foreign Student OPT Work Authorization Automatically Extended for H1B Selectees

The gap between the end of F-1 Foreign Student Optional Practical Training [OPT] in summer 2008 and the October 1st onset of H-1B employment has been bridged by a new Department of Homeland Security [DHS] regulation granting an automatic extension of OPT work authorization. Only those students in F-1 OPT status who are lucky enough to have their H-1B visa petition selected in the FY09 lottery will gain this benefit. No further application to CIS will be required. A receipt notice for the successful H-1B filing is all that will be necessary to extend the validity of the OPT work authorization. This extension is NOT limited to those students who have pursued studies in the STEM fields [Science, Technology, Engineering, Math].