2023 H-1B Cap Lottery Has Been Completed

By John F. Quill

On December 12, 2023, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the annual quota of 85,000 new H-1B filings for the FY2024 H-1B cap for H-1B registrations submitted in March 2023.

This means that any H-1B registration that USCIS did not select in the March 2023 lottery or the July 2023 lottery will not be eligible to file an H-1B cap petition this year. The next opportunity to sponsor an individual in the H-1B cap lottery will be in March 2024 for the FY2025 H-1B cap. As was recently reported by Mintz, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published proposed regulations that may modify the FY2025 H-1B registration process. Mintz will publish a client alert if these regulations become final.

As previously reported, USCIS conducted a lottery due to receiving 758,994 eligible registrations for the FY2024 H-1B cap. USCIS completed its initial lottery selection process in March 2023, which afforded employers with selected H-1B registrations 90 days to submit complete H-1B petitions to USCIS for adjudication. USCIS announced a second lottery on July 27, 2023, as it had determined that there were fewer filed H-1B petitions as compared to selected H-1B registrations. Overall, the selection rate for eligible registrations for FY2024 was 24.8%.

Unlike the FY 2022 H-1B cap, there will be no third lottery this year because USCIS has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to fill the FY2024 quota.

If you have any questions regarding H-1B cap registration or the USCIS lottery process, please contact your Mintz Immigration attorney.

 

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    John F. Quill

    Member / Chair, Immigration Practice

    John’s practice encompasses all aspects of immigration and nationality law. John draws on over two decades of experience to help companies and their employees obtain nonimmigrant visas, including B, E, H, J, L, O, and TN visas. He also handles applications for PERM labor certification; extraordinary ability, outstanding researcher, and national interest waiver petitions; adjustment of status procedures; consular processing; and naturalization.