USCIS anticipates that it may receive more petitions than the H-1B cap between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013.
If USCIS receives more petitions than it can accept, USCIS will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit. If there is a lottery, all cap-subject petitions received in the first five days will be included in the lottery.
8 CFR §214.2(h)(8)(ii)(B) reads, in part: “If the final receipt date is any of the first five business days on which petitions subject to the applicable numerical limit may be received (i.e., if the numerical limit is reached on any one of the first five business days that filings can be made), USCIS will randomly apply all of the numbers among the petitions received on any of those five business days, conducting the random selection among the petitions subject to the exemption under section 214(g)(5)(C) of the Act first.”
The lottery for the H-1B cap was last used in April 2008.
