US Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting H-1B petitions on April 1 and expects to exceed the H-1B cap during the first five business days of this year’s program. The congressionally mandated cap on H-1B visas for fiscal year 2017 is 65,000. However, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for individuals with a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from the 65,000 cap.

If USCIS receives an excess of petitions during the first five business days, the agency will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to meet the cap. USCIS will reject all unselected petitions that are subject to the cap as well as any petitions received after the cap has closed.

USCIS used the lottery system for the program last year and the number of visas requested exceeded the annual caps in the first week.