Visa Lawyer Blog
Yes, the big day has arrived, March 31, 2008!!! We are very excited (and exhausted), but all our cases are ready to go via FEDEX to the Vermont or Califronia Service Centers dpending on the locations of the employers. We carefully marked all the envelopes with bright markers to indicate Premium and Regular processing cases. We also rubbed each envelope with a special H1B magic potion to make sure they will be selected in the lottery-…(just kidding, April fools is tomorrow!!!)
We just learned, that USCIS indicated that only H1B petitions selected in the lottery will be issued receipt notices. Last year it was madness, some H1B petitions were issued receipts before the lottery and without consideration for whether or not they were accepted for processing. This created significant confusion and anxiety. Some petitioners who were issued the receipt notice assumed that their filings were accepted for processing when, in fact, they were refused later through the lottery. To avoid this confusion this year, the USCIS will conduct the H1B lottery before issuing receipts for H1B petitions accepted for processing for FY2009. In anticipation of the rush of cap-subject H1B filings that will begin April 1, 2008, the USCIS has alerted the U.S. Postal Service and the courier services to the increased volume of mail expected.
We wish best of luck to all the H1B visa filers this year, and we will keep you posted….