In a surprise to no-one, U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the congressionallymandated H-1B cap of 85,000 visas for fiscal year (FY) 2017.
Asin the last few years, USCIS will use a computer-generated process (H-1Blottery) to randomly select H-1B petition “winners”.  The agency will reject and return filing feesfor all unselected cap-subject petitions.
USCIS’press release indicates that it cannot yet determine when it will conductthe random selection process.  USCIS willbeginpremium processing for H-1B cap-subject petitions requesting premiumprocessing no later than May 11, 2015.
Internationalworkers who are working in the U.S. on an H-1B visa with another cap-subjectemployer are not subject to H-1B cap. These cases are commonly referred to as“H-1B transfer” cases and may be filed at any time throughout the year.

Likewise,H-1B extensions and amendments are also not subject to the H-1B cap.  MU Law recently posted a blog on alternativesto the H-1B cap, whichyou can access here.