The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that a second round of selection for the H-1B visa lottery for the fiscal year 2024 will take place.
The lottery is likely to be conducted within the next few days, possibly by August 2, according to analysis by Day 1 CPT Universities.
In this second round, it is expected that 20,000 to 25,000 H1B petitioners will be selected. The USCIS is authorized to grant 85,000 cap-subject H-1B visas each year.
The initial random selection process for the FY 2024 H-1B cap was conducted by USCIS in March 2023. However, only around 70% of the authorized quota had been issued, leaving a significant number of available visas.
To select applicants for the remaining visas, the USCIS will use a random selection process from the previously submitted electronic entries.
The prediction of a second round of the H1B visa lottery was made by Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com, the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, PC. He pointed out that the IT industry has faced layoffs, leading some employers to be hesitant about hiring foreign workers. This uncertainty has caused delays in the filing of H1B visa applications, as some employers wait to see how the market evolves before submitting their applications.
In the second round of the lottery, the government uses statistical computations to determine the number of applicants needed to fulfill the visa allotment, typically selecting more applicants than the available number of visas to account for those who may not end up filing for various reasons.
Khanna noted that if the statistical projections are incorrect and there are leftover visas, a second round of the lottery may be held to allocate the remaining visas. This second round aims to ensure that all available H1B visas are utilized efficiently and that deserving applicants have the opportunity to work in the United States.
