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United States | USCIS Announces it has Hit H-1B Cap for FY2024, Won’t Conduct Third Lottery

United States | USCIS Announces it has Hit H-1B Cap for FY2024, Won’t Conduct Third Lottery
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday that it has received enough petitions to reach congressionally mandated H-1B caps. This means there will not be a third H-1B lottery this fiscal year.

Key Points:

  • The annual H-1B cap is set at 65,000 visas plus an additional 20,000 for advanced degree holders (the master’s cap).
  • USCIS said Wednesday it had received sufficient petitions to reach both caps and would send non-selection notices to registrants through their online accounts over the next few days. Once this happens, the status for properly submitted registrations that were not selected for the FY2024 H-1B cap will show: “Not Selected: Not selected — not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration.”
  • USCIS will continue to accept and process cap-exempt H-1B petitions. It will also continue to accept petitions to:
    • Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.
    • Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.
    • Allow current H-1B workers to change employers.
    • Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.

Additional Information: USCIS completed its initial lottery of H-1B cap-subject registrations in March, selecting 110,791 of 758,994 eligible registrations. The agency completed a second lottery in July, selecting an additional 77,609 eligible registrations, significantly more than it has selected in second lotteries in past years. 

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