USCIS Announces Delay in H-1B Cap Data Entry and Receipt Notices

On April 13, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (“USCIS”) Public Engagement Division announced in a stakeholder message that it will not begin data entry and notice generation for this year’s H-1B cap-subject petitions until at least May 1, 2020 due to COVID-19-related health and safety protocols. Due to this delay, the USCIS has instructed petitioners to expect a general delay in the processing of H-1B cap petitions. While the USCIS indicated that it will strive to prioritize petitions for beneficiaries with sensitive expirations and start dates, such as cap-gap petitions, the announcement did not provide any further specifics on how long anticipated processing times will be. The USCIS also stated that, in order to balance its workload efficiencies, petitions may be transferred to other Service Centers after filing, for which petitioners will receive transfer notifications in the mail. We will notify clients immediately of any updates regarding anticipated processing times for H-1B cap petitions.