FY 2019 H-1B Visa

If you were not lucky enough to win the H-1B lottery in 2017, you should start to prepare for your new H-1B petition for Fiscal Year 2019 as soon as possible, probably now. If this is your first time filing H-1B petition, please go check our website H-1B Page for the basic H-1B information.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services usually starts to accept H-1B petitions exactly six months before the start of the next fiscal year. As Fiscal Year 2019 starts on October 1, 2018, USCIS will probably start accepting H-1B petitions for FY 2019 from April 1, 2018. Since April 1, 2018 is a Sunday, USCIS should accept from April 2, 2018.

As of the today, the FY 2019 H-1B Cap count stays the same: 65,000 for H-1B Regular Cap, additional 20,000 for H-1B Master’s Exemption. Also, 6,800 visas among the total 85,000 visas will be set aside for the citizens of Singapore and Chile as part of the Free Trade Agreement with them.

The H-1B filing fees include $460 basic filing fee; $1,500 ACWIA (American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998) fee when employers have more than 25 employees or $750 when employers have 25 or fewer employees; $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection Fee when employers seek the initial approval for you; $4,000 when employers have 50 or more employees in the U.S. and more than 50 percent of these employees are in H-1B, L-1A or L-1B status; and $1,225 Premium Processing Service fee which is optional.

If there are any changes, we will update and post in our blog promptly.