Applications for H1-B visas flooded the government office in charge of processing them. There were so many that the federal government closed the registration deadline and stopped accepting more petitions on April 7, 2017 because it had run out of available H-1B visas for fiscal year 2018.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today disclosed that they received 199,000 applications between April 3 and 7.
On Tuesday, April 11, USCIS also held a lottery to select who will receive visas.
Unsuccessful applications will be rejected and returned to the petitioner along with the fees charged.
If USCIS finds that someone violated the processing instructions and submitted two or more petitions to increase their chances, they will not refund the fees for processing the petitions, even if they were not selected for an H1-B visa.
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