It’s H-1B cap season again, which means employers should now identify current foreign national employees or foreign candidates they would like to hire and sponsor for an H1-B visa.
H1-B Lottery details
As with most other visa categories, there is a cap on the number of visas issued. The breakdown is:
- 65,000 standard cap filings for those with bachelor’s degrees (or their equivalent). This will include 6,800 reserved for applicants from Chile or Singapore.
- 20,000 master cap filings for those with an M.A. degree or higher from an accredited school in the U.S.
There were 308,603 applicants for the fiscal year 2022, which meant approximately a 28% chance of winning. The percentage went up if the candidate had an advanced degree. Employers/sponsors create accounts online at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website and submit their pre-registration paperwork electronically. This lottery registration window opened on March 1, 2022 and will close on March 18, 2022.
Once the lottery registration closes, qualified candidates are then selected randomly. Typically, the USCIS will start notifying the selected candidates on March 31. Any master cap applicants not chosen in their cap group are automatically rolled over to the larger general group. After the lottery selection process, employers will then move onto must fill out more detailed paperwork to finalize and submit their H1-B’s.
A once a year opportunity
Typically this will be the only window for the year to apply. Still, candidates not initially picked may get selected later when previously selected candidates defer their acceptance, or are not qualified necessitating the USCIS to pick additional applicants.
Please feel free to contact our office for assistance with applying for this year’s H1-B lottery.