The agency will determine the allocation of visas, highly popular among IT professionals, through computerized draw of lots.
"USCIS anticipates receiving more than enough petitions to reach both caps by April 7. The agency is prepared to use a random selection process to meet the numerical limit. Non-duplicate petitions that are not selected will be rejected and returned with the filing fees," an official statement said.
As per the Congressional mandated cap, USCIS can allocate a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2015 beginning October 1, 2014.
"Due to the high level of premium processing receipts anticipated, combined with the possibility that the H-1B cap will be met in the first five business days of the filing season, USCIS has temporarily adjusted its current premium processing practise," it said.
"To facilitate the prioritised intake of cap-subject petitions requesting premium processing, ISIS will begin premium processing for H-1B cap cases no later than April 28," ISIS added.
ISIS conducted a computerised draw of lots for available H-1B visas Last year. This random lottery was conducted on April 7, 2013, and was the first random lottery since April 2008.
Meanwhile, Marc Klein, an immigration attorney with Thompson & Knight told the CNBC news that at least 160,000 applications are expected for the 85,000 available visas.
Her estimate would top 2012's 134,000 petitions and last year's 124,000.
The highest ever number of applications was more than 2,01,000 in 2001, according to USCIS.
"It just shows the US still lags behind other countries when it comes to an emphasis on educating American-born students in computer science, math and other areas," she was quoted as saying.
USCIS Official News : Summary of H1B Visa 2014 Lottery Results press release
Big News: For the first time in USCIS history since 2008, H1B Visas 2014 cap reached within the first week of filings, i.e, first week of April. You can check out US Economy and H1B Visa Lottery
Total H1B Petitions received : USCIS received a total of 124,000 H1B Visa petitions for fiscal year 2014.
Lottery Information : USCIS conducted a random computer generated random selection process, also called as lottery, on April 7th to select the petitions needed to meet the regular cap of 65,000 and masters cap of 20,000
Lottery Process followed: As described in our detail H1B Visa Lottery process, USCIS followed the same thing. First USCIS conducted lottery process for Masters quota petitions and then the petitions not selected in masters lottery were merged with regular quota pool and random selection process was conducted for remaining pool to select 65,000 petitions.
Petitions Not Selected in Lottery : If your petition was not selected in lottery, USCIS will reject and return the petition along with the filing fee, except for duplicate petitions.
Premium Processing for H1B Visa 2014 : To facilitate the data entry process and meet the timelines, USCIS will begin premium processing for H1B Visa 2014 from April 15th.
Non-Cap Subject Petitions Accepted : USCIS will continue to accept non-cap subject petitions i.e, that have already been counted towards to the cap, including petitions filed under below category
1.H1B Visa stay extensions
2.Employee terms changes for H1B visa worker
3.H1B petitions filed for Change of employers
4.H1B petitions filed for concurrent working for more than one employer
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