The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a second round of random lottery selection for H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2024, which ends on September 30, 2024.
In March, USCIS conducted the first random selection process on properly submitted electronic registrations for the FY 2024 H-1B cap, including beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption. Only petitioners with selected registrations from this initial process are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The initial filing period for these selected registrations was from April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023.
However, USCIS recently determined that additional registrations need to be selected to reach the FY 2024 numerical allocations. As a result, they will conduct a second random selection process on previously submitted electronic registrations. Once this second selection process is completed, USCIS will notify all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round. These selected beneficiaries will then be eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition.
Individuals with selected registrations will have their myUSCIS accounts updated to include a selection notice, which will provide details on when and where to file the H-1B petition.
One of the reasons for the need for a second round of lottery could be to address fraudulent practices, such as filing multiple H-1B cap registrations for the same beneficiary by American sponsoring entities working in coordination to improve their chances of winning the lottery for that individual. This crackdown on fraudulent practices may have necessitated the second lottery, according to immigration experts cited in a report by The Times of India (TOI).
In fiscal year 2022, the US conducted multiple lotteries due to the low volume of visa applications ultimately filed by American sponsoring entities. There was a second lottery in July 2021, followed by yet another lottery in November 2021.
For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, USCIS received 758,994 eligible registrations for the H-1B cap season. Out of this number, USCIS selected 110,791 registrations to meet the annual quota of 85,000 H-1B visas.