The US immigration agency has announced the completion of the lottery to select beneficiaries for popular American H1B visas.
This move came after the initial H1B sign-up period for the fiscal year 2025 closed on March 25, according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In a post on X, USCIS confirmed random selections and dispatch of notifications to ‘myUSCIS’ accounts.
Fiscal Year 2025 H-1B cap petitioners: random selections have been made and notifications are being sent to myUSCIS accounts beginning yesterday and continuing over the next few days prior to April 1.— USCIS (@USCIS) March 28, 2024
Earlier, a technical glitch on the USCIS website caused a three-day delay in the deadline for visa applications for the financial year 2025, shifting it from March 22 to March 25. Despite the delay, USCIS reassured potential petitioners that they would be contacted to confirm their eligibility to submit a petition subject to the H1B cap.
The demand for H-1B visas consistently exceeds the annual cap of 85,000, prompting USCIS to employ a lottery system to select recipients. Indian tech professionals have been prominent beneficiaries of H1B cap-subject visas in recent years, securing over 70% of the 85,000 visas available, including the 20,000 master’s quota for holders of advanced US degrees.
However, USCIS projects a decline in applications this year, attributing the decrease to intensified efforts to combat fraud. Beginning next month, USCIS will transition the H-1B Form I-129 filing location to a lockbox, requiring all paper-based petitions to be sent to USCIS lockbox facilities. It is important to note that there will be no grace period for petitions received at USCIS service centers on or after April 1, 2024.
“We’re always looking for ways to bolster integrity and curtail the potential for fraud while improving and streamlining our application processes,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said in January. “The improvements in these areas should make H-1B selections more equitable for petitioners and beneficiaries and will allow for the H-1B process to be fully electronic from registration, if applicable, until final decision and transmission of approved petitions to the Department of State.”
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