Just as people were starting to lose hope, USCIS announced that it will soon hold a second round of selections for the FY 2025 H-1B cap. USCIS will randomly select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries from the previously submitted registrations.

There will not be a separate selection process for the master’s cap because a sufficient number of petitions were received to fill that allocation. Individuals who were eligible for the master’s cap but were not selected in the first round will be included in the second round of selections along with those eligible for the regular cap.

Selected registrations will be posted on the USCIS online accounts and, as before, will include the selection notice with details of where and when to file.

USCIS received approximately 440,000 registrations from unique beneficiaries this year and selected about 114,000 to meet the 85,000 cap. We have no figures yet on how many new registrations will be selected.