Today, USCIS announced it has reached a sufficient number of registrations for the second H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2025 and has notified all prospective H-1B petitioners with selected registrations that they are eligible to file.

Key Points:

  • Only petitioners with selected registrations may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2025, and only for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration notice.
  • A second selection for the master’s cap was not conducted because enough master’s cap registrations had already been selected and sufficient petitions were received.
  • Registration selection only pertains to eligibility to file an H-1B cap-subject petition. Petitioners filing H-1B cap-subject petitions must still establish eligibility for petition approval based on existing statutory and regulatory requirements.

Additional Information: An H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov and within the filing period indicated on the relevant selection notice. The period for filing the H-1B cap-subject petition will be at least 90 days. Petitioners must include a copy of the applicable selection notice with the FY 2025 H-1B cap-subject petition.

USCIS published a final rule that increased fees required for most immigration applications and petitions on Jan. 31, 2024. The new fees are effective as of April 1, 2024, and petitions with incorrect fees will be rejected. Also, as of April 1, 2024, only the new edition of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, will be accepted.

The increased filing fee for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, is effective as of Feb. 26, 2024. I-907 forms postmarked on or after Feb. 26, 2024, with the incorrect fee will be rejected and fees returned.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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