AILA – USCIS Service Center Operations H-1B Processing Q & A 5/2/07

VIA AILA

1. Please confirm whether or not all of the receipt notices for cap cases have been sent out. If not, when does USCIS anticipate that they will all be sent?

A: USCIS has previously indicated May 11th as the completion date for this effort.

2. Hypo – Petitioner files a case under the bachelors cap on 4-2. On 4-10, beneficiary completes his master’s degree and Petitioner files a case under the Masters cap. On 4-13, bachelors cap case is picked for the random lottery and later approved. Masters cap case is also approved.

If Petitioner now wants to revoke one of the petitions, it is better to send in the revocation notice on the bachelors or the masters cap case?

A: It does not matter from the beneficiary’s perspective. Once he or she has earned the Master’s degree he or she will always be exempt unless the law changes so there are no future cap issues as there might be with other exemptions-for example an alien who is exempt due to employment “at” a cap-exempt facility who moves away from that employment would likely require a cap spot in the future. It does not matter from the petitioner’s perspective as its obligations are the same regardless of whether the beneficiary is cap-exempt or not. It also does not matter from a cap conservation perspective as USCIS has previously indicated that it does not allocate cap slots on a per-slot, unique basis in the way immigrant visa slots are allocated. Situations such as these involving withdrawals, denials, etc. are already accounted for in USCIS’ estimated target number of petitions needed to reach the cap and withdrawal of a single cap-subject approval will not restore that individual slot to the cap pool.