Nah that's not true. New applications are due in late April usually, and valid assuming you win the lottery, you can start at the beginning of the new USICS fiscal year in October. You can prep the paperwork in a week or two if you want. 6-7 months should suffice, and thats assuming you are selected. With premium processing you should know within what 2 weeks of submission? Not sure how premium processing works with the lottery.
Last year I was selected in the lottery and was not approved until late August when the company decided to pay for the premium processing since the attorney's estimates were that it would be adjudicated in January/17.
I had a friend selected in the same lottery, but with no premium processed and his approval came indeed in January/17.
This year it seems that there is no premium processing so everybody is in the same boat and the wait COULD be long.
Another friend that applied this year has been selected in the lottery and is waiting for the adjudication of the process.
My company's lawyer says that premium processing applicants receive their confirmation e-mail in the next few weeks IF they were selected. Regular processing should be notified by post late May/early June.
There's so much variation right now but we are seeing - even without premium processing - much faster adjudication of I-140 NIW petitions, shorting the process by 6+ months. My feeling is that before the end of 2023 premium processing will be available for all I-140 NIW petitions, not just those that have been pending for a while.
From the way I understand it cases with premium processing should here back until May 11. From what I've heard, others "before October" (one company doing consulting for H-1Bs expects these until August 15).
What's your estimate for current processing times of NIW EB2 applications and what are the chances of that getting premium processing for applications in the coming months?
"USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013."
It says through april 5th. So, All applications will face lottery even if you submitted yours on april 1st.
For anyone who applies before the end of this weekend, we'll be in touch by mid-week next week with decisions on next steps in the process. Final decisions should be made about 1.5-2 weeks after that. We'll move equally quickly for applications that come in next week through to the April 14 deadline.
I was expecting something like applying for the green card lottery and winning. Which is roughly 6 months from the deadline till the winners are announced.
They may be accepting applications for 2020 but some subset won't be approved until they have the lottery. Also, it may take some time to update the file. The 2019 file will grow larger. Ignore it for now.
It seems like they could start scheduling windows for say June 2022, and then if it happens to be ready before that, have a lottery for slots that you have to use within a day or two of getting the slot. So basically for the folks who just happen to be ready to go and what they're looking at isn't time dependent.
I am in a similar position with a priority date of June 2022 and have been current sin Jan 1. I would love to hear Peter's advice here. The endless checking of the application status is tough.
* there is no lottery. If you apply after the cap has been reached you're out of luck (not sure about edge cases).
* if you were to apply right now, you would be able to start working no earlier than October 1st. After that you could start within a few weeks of application if your employer pays for expedited service. But you don't want to apply much later than autumn either; last year the cap was reached in January: http://1.usa.gov/H1Bcap11
The current batch is at 1/3rd: http://1.usa.gov/H1Bcap
* I've heard people say the market is more "hot", because of the potential bubble, which may mean they run out faster this year. On the other hand I've stats that say total investment is the same as last year, it's just more concentrated.
As far as I know, only applying in April is incorrect. In past years the quotas ran out almost immediately when they started in April, so that was essentially the case. This year the quota hasn't run out yet.
well that's when you (from previous round) are going.. i got an email yesterday from them confirming my submission and saying that the results will be out December 15. So Jan 16 would be a little early imo, for all the visa and paperwork will probably take longer. feb/March sounds more reasonable. :)
I think this is the right answer. Even without pushing out the start date, it can easily be 1-2 months or more between applying and a start date, with various online tests, multiple rounds of interviews, background checks, etc, etc.
That being the case, I'd be applying now, and moving through the pipeline with a few possibilities, so there is something ready to go/push out in 2 months.
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