Today, 4/15/19 we received our first I-797 receipt notices in the mail for some of the premium processing petitions selected in the lottery that were filed with the Vermont Service Center. These receipts have a “Received Date” of 04/11/2019 and a “Notice Date” of 04/12/2019. Please remember that this is just the beginning. Don’t get discouraged if you haven’t heard anything yet. The receipting process takes a few weeks given the sheer volume of petitions USCIS must go through and complete data entry on.

Below you will find daily updates regarding the cap-subject H-1B receipt notices for petitions filed in the FY2020 lottery.

BEFORE commenting, please review the following FAQs:

 

• My premium processing email says that the 15-day clock begins on the “received date”. Does this mean I should hear back by April 26th?

NO, the 15-day clock does not begin until May 20th. The email template used by USCIS was not updated to reflect this.

• My checks have not been cashed/I haven’t received a receipt notice/SEVIS doesn’t show any update – does this mean I did not get selected?

NO, that does NOT mean you were not selected!!! The process of sending out receipt notices, updating systems, etc. takes time – remember: it’s only been a few DAYS! This entire process of notifying selected applicants will take WEEKS to complete. It’s still very early on, so don’t worry if you haven’t heard anything about your petition yet.

• My checks have been cashed/I have received a receipt notice/SEVIS shows a receipt number – does this mean I got selected?

Yes, USCIS only cashes checks/sends receipts to those that were selected.

• Can I find out about my H-1B through the new SEVP Portal?

Maybe. SEVP does update the employment end date to September 30th for those that are in the cap gap and have been selected. However, this occurs over time, not everyone is updated right away.

• Was my Advanced Degree petition selected in the Advanced cap or in the Regular cap?

USCIS does not disclose if an AD petition was selected under the AD cap or the Regular cap. There is no way to determine which cap an AD petition gets selected under.

• Why are we seeing receipts for AD petitions first? 

USCIS tries to send out AD petition receipts first as these applicants are more likely to need the receipt notice ASAP for cap-gap purposes. This is not an indicator of whether the AD petition got selected under the AD cap or the regular cap – again, there is no way to determine which cap an AD petition gets selected.

• I’ve received my receipt notice but nothing shows up when I check my case status on the USCIS website/it doesn’t recognize my receipt number! Was I selected or not? What does this mean?

If you have received a receipt notice, your petition was selected in the lottery. USCIS only sends receipt notices to the petitions that were selected. The website most likely has not been updated or your receipt number hasn’t been entered into their system yet and that is why you cannot find a status update for your petition online. (Remember, these things take time!). You may want to try creating an account. Last year, many were able to view their case status through their account even if it did not appear in the USCIS website.

• Can you share the percentage of checks cashed versus the percentage of receipts versus emails received?

The difference between the percentage of checks cashed and the percentage of receipts/emails is so small that it doesn’t change anything I have already shared.

• When will I get my receipt notice/rejection notice/approval notice?

Check out my free timeline at: http://immigrationgirl.com/lottery/

 

I use the following abbreviations to refer to the different service centers and case types:

• AD/VT/PP = Advanced Degree or masters cap / Vermont Service Center / Premium Processing
• AD/CA/PP = Advanced Degree or masters cap / California Service Center / Premium Processing
• AD/VT = Advanced Degree or masters cap / Vermont Service Center / Regular Processing
• AD/CA = Advanced Degree or masters cap / California Service Center / Regular Processing
• non-AD/VT/PP = Regular or bachelors cap / Vermont Service Center / Premium Processing
• non-AD/CA/PP = Regular or bachelors cap/ California Service Center / Premium Processing
• non-AD/VT = Regular or bachelors cap / Vermont Service Center / Regular Processing
• non-AD/CA = Regular or bachelors cap / California Service Center / Regular Processing

 

4/19/19 UPDATE: Email notifications have slowed down for Premium Processing (PP) Advanced Degree (AD) petitions filed at both service centers. This does NOT mean that it is 100% over for AD petitions filed in premium processing, but based on how many we know have been selected so far, I think we may be getting close to the end for this case type. Also, late yesterday we received or first email notifications for Non-AD Premium Processing from the California Service Center.

• AD/VT/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 64% of our cases in this category
• AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification  and/or I-797 receipt notices in 66% of our cases

 

• AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 11% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

4/18/19 UPDATE: Email notifications continue coming in for Premium Processing (PP) Advanced Degree (AD) petitions filed at both service centers. Many I-797 Receipt notices came in today’s snail mail for petitions we have already received emails for. These have Notice Dates of 4/12/19 to 4/15/19.

• AD/VT/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 64% of our cases in this category
• AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification  and/or I-797 receipt notices in 64% of our cases

 

• AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

4/17/19 UPDATE: Email notifications continue coming in for Premium Processing (PP) Advanced Degree (AD) petitions filed at both service centers. No I-797 Receipt notices came in today’s snail mail

• AD/VT/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 52% of our cases in this category
• AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification  in 56% of our cases

 

• AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

4/16/19 UPDATE: Email notifications continue coming in for Premium Processing (PP) Advanced Degree (AD) petitions filed at both service centers. No I-797 Receipt notices came in today’s snail mail (this is normal as we usually don’t receive much mail from USCIS on Tuesdays)

 

• AD/VT/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 42% of our cases in this category
• AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification  in 46% of our cases

 

• AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

4/15/19 UPDATE: Email notifications started coming in last week for Premium Processing (PP) Advanced Degree (AD) petitions filed at both service centers. The actual I-797 Receipt notices have only come in the mail for a few petitions from Vermont today for AD/PP 

 

• AD/VT/PP: We have received email notification and/or I-797 receipt notices in 15% of our cases
• AD/CA/PP: We have received email notification  in 7% of our cases

 

• AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA/PP: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

• non-AD/VT: We have received I-797 receipt notices in 0% of our cases
• non-AD/CA: We have received I-797 receipt notices  in 0% of our cases

 

I will update this information daily as we get more receipts in.

Please remember to keep your comments helpful and positive. And read the above information before commenting! I will delete comments that are not beneficial to readers here. There are usually quite a few duplicate comments or just general comments about making the lottery. I will try to remove those just to keep the feed clean, please don’t take offense if your comment gets deleted! It is just to keep the page as clean as possible so that it can be more informative. Best of luck everyone!

 

 ~ImmigrationGirl

 

BEFORE commenting, please review the above FAQs

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