Second lottery round for H-1B aspirants this year

Washington: A second round of random lottery selection for the much sought-after H-1B visas for fiscal 2024 will soon begin after it was determined that "additional registrations" need to be selected to reach the numerical allocations, the US federal immigration agency has announced, a decision that could benefit more Indian professionals.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that it will select the additional registrations from the previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process. In March, the USCIS conducted an initial random selection of properly submitted electronic registrations for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 H-1B cap, including for beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption.

Only those petitioners with selected registrations for FY 2024 are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The initial filing period for those with selected registrations for FY 2024 was from April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. "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," the USCIS said in a statement.

"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 said. Those with select ed registrations will have their accounts updated to include a selection notice, which includes details of when and where to file, it added. As mandated by Congress, USCIS can issue a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas in a year. It can also issue another 20,000 H-1B visas to foreign students who have completed higher studies from a US university in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.