USCIS starts accepting H1B Visa petitions starting April 1st 2015, Wednesday. There has already been enough speculations that there would be H1B lottery this year as well. There was an H1B Visa Lottery for the Fiscal Year 2015 (last year) as well, due to the large number of H-1B petitions received by the USCIS, exceeding the quota.
In this article, We would like to focus on Duplicate Filings for H-1B, prohibited by USCIS. Since the lottery process for the Fiscal Year 2015 is almost confirmed, the employee applying for H-1B would possibly be in a situation having last chance to apply for H-1B this year. It is important to know duplicate filings for H-1B are not allowed by the USCIS.
H1B Duplicate Filings
A duplicate filing is sending multiple H-1B petitions to the USCIS from the same employer. If company ‘A’ is filing H-1B for an Employee ‘X’ multiple times at a given time, it is considered as Duplicate H-1B Filing. This is prohibited by the USCIS. According to the USCIS,
USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, unless it is found to be a duplicate filing.
Make sure this doesn’t happen since you are risking your chance of getting H-1B.
What is not a Duplicate H1-B Filing?
If you have an H-1B petition filed by employer ‘A’ and another petition filed by employer ‘B’ to the USCIS at the same time, it is not considered a duplicate H-1B filing and this is allowed.
H-1B Petitions Filed From Multiple Employers – What To Do?
If you have multiple employers filing your H-1B, as already mentioned it is not considered a duplicate. If both petitions are selected through lottery and are approved, you get to chose which employer you want to go with.
Was checking some article and got this one, very interesting 🙂 but I have a question ?
Per statement above""If Person X files multiple H1B from different employers A, B , C and D for different clients and if all of his applications get selected in lottery and Person X decides to go with Company A..""
Q: The H1b is submitted by the employer and not employee, so there is no way an employee come to know the status of the application unless the employer share's the receipt no. In that case how will an employee get a chance to chose the employer ?
If I get H1B visa filed from multiple H1B from different employers A, B for different clients and if both the applications gets selected in lottery and I decide to go with Company A, then what happen to the company B which were selected. Is there any change of rules this year 16-17.
And also will company B get their money back from USCIS which they spent on H1B visa filing process for me? pls let me know.. look forward for earliest response.
If I get H1B visa filed from multiple H1B from different employers A, B for different clients and if both the applications gets selected in lottery and I decide to go with Company A, then what happen to the company B which were selected. Is there any change of rules this year 16-17. Look forward for earliest response.
If I get H1B visa filed from multiple H1B from different employers A, B for different clients and if both the applications gets selected in lottery and I decide to go with Company A, then what happen to the company B which were selected. Will company B get their money back from USCIS which they spent on H1B visa filing process for me? pls let me know
Can someone please respond for query posted above by Gopi. I am too in the same confusion.
If Person X files multiple H1B from different employers A, B , C and D for different clients and if all of his applications get selected in lottery and Person X decides to go with Company A, then What happens to the other 3 applications of company B, C and D which were selected but are technically wasted. Does USCIS reassign it to someone else or they are wasted?
I am not sure. May be as some approvals came in August too last year
Can we withdraw from other employer if H1 is picked from the first employer?
Yes you can
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If two petitions are sent by the same employer for the same employee and both gets picked in the lottery, is it possible to revoke one of them?? what happens if one of them is revoked??
They would find you and will revoke both of them…that is where duplicate scenario comes
If two or more employers file H1B for the same person and all of them gets selected in the lottery then will it be counted as one for cap purpose ?
Nope
I am sorry, I might be wrong in understanding the statement mentioned below and quoted from this article but it doesn’t seem correct to me. Specially, the part after “Unless”.
“USCIS will reject and return the petition with filing fees, UNLESS it is found to be a duplicate filing”
It simply means that if it is a duplicate filing, USCIS will reject as well as ‘not return’ the filing fees as well!
That’s american English – so it is always less clear to aliens like us 🙂
haha liked the word “aliens” true to the spirit of US immigrations.
Check this http://h1b-transfer.com/370/uscis-duplicate-petition-alert-be-careful
What if the client is same and 2 employer files for that position? Would that be considered as duplicate filing?
Only one application is allowed for one job – one client. If you do multiple applications, both will be rejected.
You are right..gets a hefty paycheck this month 😉
no it wont be considered as duplicate as you are filing through 2 different employers
It is Duplicate. You cannot have filing with the same client. That is no good which will result in multiple RFE’s thereby having bleak chances
Thank you H1BWiki! Very helpful
This is an old story, whats new about this?