The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has completed the second round of H-1B lottery selection for fiscal year (FY) 2025 under its regular annual 65,000 visa limit. USCIS had earlier decided it needed to select more registrations To meet the FY 2025 regular cap quota for specific beneficiaries.
Additionally, USCIS has notified all potential 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 estimates show that we have now selected a sufficient number of registrations for specific beneficiaries needed to reach the regular limit from the remaining FY 2025 registrations,” the US immigration agency said.
There is no second round for Master Cap
USCIS has confirmed that there will be no second selection for the advanced degree exemption or the masters cap, as the required numbers have been met in the first round.
“We did not conduct a second selection for the advanced degree waiver (masters cap) because sufficient registrations had already been selected for the masters cap and enough petitions were received based on these registrations to meet the masters cap numerical allocation,” the US immigration authority said.
The H-1B visa cap for FY 2025 has been set at 65,000 for the regular limit and an additional 20,000 under the masters limit.
in March, USCIS conducts random lottery for H-1B visas for fiscal year 2025This also includes those eligible for advanced degree exemptions.
The initial filing period for these selected registrations was from April 1 to June 30, 2024.
H-1B visa popular among Indian professionalsIt 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 to hire skilled foreign workers, especially in the technology sector.
All prospective petitioners with selected registrations in this round Selection has been notified on myUSCIS Online account.