The USCIS has announced that they will be holding a second lottery selection for submitted electronic H1B visa registrations for FY 2024. This indicates that the total 85,000 H1B visa cap (including advanced degree exemption) has not yet been reached with the initial selection round. This is great news for those who have submitted eligible registrations but were not chosen in the first round of the lottery.
The initial lottery was held in March 2023 and the random selection process chose from a record-breaking 780,000 registrations, a 61% increase from the number of registrations for FY 2023. Out of the 780k+ registrations, only 110,791 submissions were selected to proceed with filing their H1B visa cap-subject petitions. The initial filing period for those who were selected was from April 1, 2023 through June 30, 2023.
How Do I Know if I’m Eligible for Selection in the Second H1B Lottery?
If you submitted a valid registration in the initial H1B lottery window back in March 2023 and were not selected in the first round, you are put on a waiting list. The USCIS will pull registrations from this waiting list during their next round of the lottery.
If you are waitlisted and eligible for the second lottery, you’ll see the following status next to your registration in your petitioner’s online portal account:
Submitted – This status means that your registration was successfully submitted and is eligible for selection in the next lottery.
Was a Second 2024 H1B Visa Lottery Expected?
We expected a second 2024 H1B visa lottery to be held for several reasons. One such reason being that only 14% of all registrations were selected in the first round, compared to a 26% selection rate in the fiscal year 2013 lottery. Additionally, USCIS data showed that there was an increase in the number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple entries – 408,891 in FY 2024 compared to only 165,180 in FY 2023. This brought up the suspicion of fraud and duplicate ineligible registrations for certain beneficiaries.
When Will the Second H1B Lottery 2024 Be Held?
While the USCIS has not provided an exact date of when they will hold the second H1B lottery for fiscal year 2024, they mentioned that their random selection process will happen soon.
How Do I Know if I’m Selected in the Second 2024 H1B Visa Lottery?
The USCIS will announce once the second lottery selection process is complete and they have notified all petitioners with selected registrations that they are eligible to file their H1B cap-subject petitions for their beneficiary.
If you are a selected registration, your myUSCIS account will be updated with a selection notice and details of when and how to file. The status for your registration will be “Selected“.
Check back for news of when the USCIS announces the second round of 2024 H1B visa lottery winners!
