Expect longer delays this year for the Fiscal Year H-1B dust to settle
March 12, 2015 | Written by Laura J. Mazel
Due to Congress’ and government agencies’ failure to step up in time this year to alleviate the H-1B hiring crisis, employers are once again gearing up to file Fiscal Year (FY) H-1B cases during the first five business days of April in the hope these cases will be randomly selected by lottery to move forward to adjudication. Last year, the government completed the H-1B lottery in late April, resulting in only a 50% acceptance yield. The government’s announcement today that it will need to wait until May 11 to begin to process cases filed by premium processing confirms that the government is preparing for a major onslaught of filings. That and given the uptick in employer’s hiring needs, we may expect a far less yield this year than last.
By comparison, the government last year began to process cases filed by premium processing on April 28. Employers and anxious employees will have to wait longer this year for the H-1B lottery results to shake out. Along with delays for cases filed by Premium Processing, we may expect to have to wait until late May/early June before we may find out whether cases filed in the regular course are FY H-1B lottery winners.
