H-1B lottery results
May 4, 2023The Results
During the FY 2024 H-1B registration period, there was a significant increase in number of registrations submitted compared to prior years. There was an increase in the number of registrations submitted, the number of registrations submitted on behalf of beneficiaries with multiple registrations, and the number of registrations submitted on behalf of unique beneficiaries with only one registration. This is a trend that has been steadily increasing over the past 2 years.
As of May 3, 2023, the rate of selection for FY 2024 is about 14%. USCIS has reported that 758,994 H-1B registrations were eligible and submitted. Only 350,103 of those registrations were for one single individual. As a result, 408,891 of the eligible registrations were for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations. In layman’s terms, each of the 408,891 registrations represent individuals with multiple registrations completed on their behalf. Of the 758,994 eligible registrations submitted, 110,791 were selected.
The 110,791 selections are about 20,000 selections less than FY 2022. The reason for this is because the USCIS anticipated that there would be a higher petition filing rate by selected registrants than previous years and because the Department of State projected higher approval of H-1B1 visas, which count against the H-1B cap.
The History
Since the electronic H-1B registration process began, the USCIS has received progressively larger numbers of registrations each year. Historically, the H-1B lottery required employers to submit the entire and complete H-1B petition in order to submit a beneficiary into the lottery. From FY2014-2020, during those years of submitting entire petitions, USCIS received between 124,000 – 236,000 petitions in the first five days of the H-1B filing season.
In 2020, the process changed so that initial H-1B registrations must have been completed by the employer online, using only a fraction of the information that was previously required. In FY2021, USCIS received 275,000 registrations. In FY2022, USCIS received 308,613 H-1B registrations, selecting 131,970 registrations in three lottery rounds. In FY2023, 483,927 H-1B registrations were received, and 127,600 registrations were selected to meet the cap.
H-1B Reserve Registration
The USCIS may conduct another H-1B lottery for FY 2024, known as H-1B Reserve Registration, if it does not receive sufficient petitions by the June 30 deadline. These additional numbers are put back into the lottery and another lottery is performed. If this lottery is going to take place, the earliest we may learn of this lottery is July 2023 but it could take place through the end of August 2023. Typically, the first method of learning about this lottery is through selections made on the registration platform.