The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says it has already received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. Applications had opened just five days ago.

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. The agency will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.

USCIS is not yet providing the total number of petitions received, as it is still accepting filings.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.