USCIS announced today that it has completed its second random selection process or lottery among H-1B cap registration applications to meet the fiscal year 2025 65,000 H-1B regular cap numerical allocation. The allocation for the 20,000 advanced degree or Master’s quota was met through the H-1B petitions that were filed during the initial filing period that concluded on June 30th and a second lottery for that allocation was not necessary. USCIS states that its projections indicate that it has now randomly selected enough registration applications for prospective H-1B petition beneficiaries to meet the regular 65,000 cap from the remaining FY 2025 registrations that were not selected in the initial lottery. As we noted in our Alert of July 30th, the second round of selection for the regular cap included previously submitted registrations that indicated eligibility for the advanced degree quota along with those that indicated eligibility only for the 65,000 allocation.
USCIS also notes that it has notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from the second lottery that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the selected registration. If a selection notice for a registration application is not received by an employer (petitioner) in a MyUSCIS account by today, it is highly unlikely that this application was selected in the second lottery.
Employers whose registrations are selected in the second lottery will have their MyUSCIS accounts updated with a selection notice and will be informed that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the selected registration. Information about where the H-1B petition should be filed will also be provided, as will the time frame during which the petition must be filed.
An H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov within the filing period indicated in the selection notice. USCIS notes that the window for filing the H-1B cap-subject petition will be at least ninety (90) days. Since this period will last until early November, which is one month past the start of FY2025 and the earliest start date for a cap-subject H-1B petition, it would be advantageous to file the petition as early as possible in order to maximize the period of employment of the H-1B beneficiary.
It is unlikely that a third selection process or lottery will be necessary to meet the 65,000 regular H-1B cap quota, but T&S will continue to monitor all updates related this issue by USCIS and will communicate with clients if we are notified of any additional selection processes.
