USCIS Concludes Initial Section for FY2024 H-1B Lottery

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has officially completed its initial selection of registrants in the FY2024 H-1B Lottery.  Companies who have registered prospective employees during the registration period from March 1-March 20 will be notified, and can begin submitting H-1B cap-subject petitions as of April 1.

This year’s H-1B registration was, again, not without its hiccups.  Technical issues on the initial final day of the registration period, March 17^th, pushed the agency to extend the initial registration period through the weekend to March 20^th, and at least initial reports suggest a massive increase in the number of registrations for FY 2024.  When the new electronic registration process was implemented for FY 2022, USCIS received 308,613 registrations.  Last year it received 483,927 registrations.  Based on current reports, it is expected that registrations this year will be significantly higher than the nearly 500,000 seen last year.

In the FY 2022 registration period, USCIS did conduct a second and third selection in July and November respectively due to insufficient numbers of petitions actually being filed, so there is still some hope for those individuals who were not initially selected in this registration period.  That said, last year USCIS did not conduct multiple selections, so it is by no means a certainty.

For employers who have had their prospective employees selected, or for those who would like to explore alternatives to the H-1B program for prospective employees not selected, please contact our office.