Second round of H-1B lottery selection for FY 2025 regular cap completed

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has completed the second round of H-1B lottery selection for the fiscal year (FY) 2025 under its regular annual 65,000 visa limit. The USCIS earlier decided that it needed to select more registrations for unique beneficiaries to meet the FY 2025 regular cap quota.

Additionally, the USCIS 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.

"Our projections indicate we have now randomly selected a sufficient number of registrations for unique beneficiaries as needed to reach the regular cap from the remaining properly submitted FY 2025 registrations," stated the US immigration agency.

NO SECOND ROUND FOR MASTER'S CAP

The USCIS confirmed there would be no second selection for the advanced degree exemption, or master’s cap, as the first round already met the required numbers.

"We did not conduct a second selection for the advanced degree exemption (the master’s cap), as enough master’s cap registrations had already been selected and sufficient petitions were received based on these registrations as projected to meet the master’s cap numerical allocation," said the immigration authority in the US.

The H-1B visa cap for FY2025 is set at 65,000 for the regular cap and an additional 20,000 under the master’s cap.

In March, USCIS held a random lottery for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B visas, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption.

The initial filing period for these selected registrations was from April 1 to June 30, 2024.

The H-1B visa, popular among Indian professionals, is the primary way for Indian IT companies to send their software engineers to the United States. Indians consistently make up the largest group of H-1B recipients.

The H-1B visa is highly sought after by US companies, particularly in the technology sector, for hiring skilled foreign workers.

All prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round of selection have been notified on the myUSCIS online account.