USCIS declared that it has received registrations under the H-1B cap for almost 442,000 distinct beneficiaries for the fiscal year 2025. Out of all the beneficiaries who registered, the agency chose 114,017, or around 25.8%, to meet the yearly H-1B quota of 85,000. This is similar to previous cap years, wherein 26.9% of eligible registrants were chosen during the FY 2023 season and 24.8% during the FY 2024 cap season. Of the 85,00 overall cap numbers, 20,000 were chosen as beneficiaries under the H-1B cap exemption for people with advanced degrees earned in the United States.
Instead of using the registration-centric selection method used in previous cap years, USCIS used a new beneficiary-centric method this year. The shift to a beneficiary-centric system was implemented in response to last year’s worries about abuse of the H-1B registration process. The intention was to lessen the incentive for entities to work together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same foreign national, thereby unfairly increasing the foreign national’s chances of winning the lottery. Comparable to the roughly 446,000 registered last year, about 442,000 unique beneficiaries were registered for the FY 2025 cap.
In order to account for situations in which no petition is eventually submitted, as well as applications that are denied, rejected, withdrawn, or revoked, USCIS typically chooses more registrations than are required to achieve the yearly 85,000 H-1B quota. If the agency receives insufficient petitions for unique beneficiaries to fulfill the quota each year, a second lottery among the unique beneficiary registrations submitted for FY 2025 may be held. The petition filing time for the chosen beneficiaries ends in July, at the latest, so it is unlikely that the agency will decide whether to hold a second lottery until then. The number of H-1B cap applications for unique beneficiaries that USCIS receives before the current H-1B filing season concludes on June 30 is probably going to have a big impact on the agency’s decision.
Please contact us directly if you need help sponsoring workers for H1B visas.
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Sincerely,
Luke Bowman
The Law offices of Luke Bowman