United States | USCIS announces it has hit H-1B cap for FY2024, won’t conduct third lottery

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday that it has received enough petitions to reach congressionally mandated H-1B caps. This means there will not be a third H-1B lottery this fiscal year.

Key Points:

• The annual H-1B cap is set at 65,000 visas plus an additional 20,000 for advanced degree holders (the master’s cap).
• USCIS said Wednesday it had received sufficient petitions to reach both caps and would send non-selection notices to registrants through their online accounts over the next few days. Once this happens, the status for properly submitted registrations that were not selected for the FY2024 H-1B cap will show: “Not Selected: Not selected — not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration.”
• USCIS will continue to accept and process cap-exempt H-1B petitions. It will also continue to accept petitions to:
  • Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.
  • Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.
  • Allow current H-1B workers to change employers.
  • Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.

Additional Information: USCIS completed its initial lottery of H-1B cap-subject registrations in March, selecting 110,791 of 758,994 eligible registrations. The agency completed a second lottery in July, selecting an additional 77,609 eligible registrations, significantly more than it has selected in second lotteries in past years. Employers 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.

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