U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced late Monday that it had completed the second H-1B registration lottery for the 2024 fiscal year.

Key Points:

  • The agency selected an additional 77,609 registrations in the second lottery, bringing the total number of registrations selected this year to 188,400.
  • USCIS said it has notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations that they are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The filing period will last at least 90 days.
  • Only petitioners with selected registrations may file H-1B cap-subject petitions for FY 2024, and only for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration notice.

Background: USCIS completed its initial lottery of H-1B cap-subject registrations in March, selecting 110,791 of 758,994 eligible registrations. Last week, USCIS announced it would conduct a second registration lottery, saying it had “recently determined that (the agency) would need to select additional registrations to reach the FY 2024 numerical allocations.”

‌BAL Analysis: With the additional selections in the second lottery, this year’s overall H-1B cap selection rate rose to 24.8%. This selection rate is roughly on par with last year’s selection rate of 26.9%, even with a surge in registrations this year. Employers should begin preparing to file full petitions for selected candidates and are encouraged to work with their BAL attorney to consider alternatives for registrations that were not selected.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

Copyright © 2023 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.