Second H-1B Visa Lottery To Be Held This Year

The US federal immigration agency has announced that a second round of random lottery selection for the highly sought-after H-1B visas for fiscal 2024 will soon begin after it was determined that additional registrations are required to reach the numerical allocations, a decision that could benefit more Indian professionals.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that it will use a random selection mechanism to choose new registrations from the previously submitted electronic registrations.

The USCIS conducted an initial random selection of correctly submitted electronic registrations for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 H-1B cap, including those qualifying for the advanced degree exemption, in March.

Petitioners with selected registrations for FY 2024 are the only ones who can file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The initial filing period for those with selected registrations for Fiscal Year 2024 was April 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to hire foreign workers in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical knowledge. Every year, technology companies rely on it to hire tens of thousands of workers from nations such as India and China.

In a statement, the USCIS stated, “We recently determined that we would need to select additional registrations to reach the FY 2024 numerical allocations. Soon, we will select additional registrations from previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process”.

“We will announce once we have completed this second selection process and have notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round of selection that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration”, the statement continued.

According to the announcement, those who have been chosen will have their accounts updated with a selection message that includes details of when and where to file.

Congress has required that USCIS grant a limit of 65,000 H-1B visas per year. It can also grant additional 20,000 H-1B visas to foreign students who have completed higher studies in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a US university.

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