U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it would conduct a second H-1B registration lottery for the 2025 fiscal year.

‌Key Points:

• USCIS will randomly select additional H-1B registrations for unique beneficiaries from previously submitted electronic registrations.
• Prospective petitioners whose registrations are selected in this second round will be notified that they are eligible to file a H-1B cap-subject petition.
• Those with selected registrations will have their USCIS online accounts updated to include a selection notice, which will include details regarding the petition filing period. No further actions are required from registrants at this time.
• USCIS will not be conducting a second selection for the advanced degree exemption (the master’s cap) as previously selected registrations have already met the FY 2025 master’s cap numerical allocation. Previously submitted registrations that indicated eligibility for the master’s cap will be included in the second round of selection for the regular cap.

Additional Information: After conducting an initial random selection for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap in March, USCIS determined that it would need to select additional registrations for unique beneficiaries to reach the FY 2025 regular cap numerical allocation. The initial filing period for FY 2025 was from April 1 through June 30, 2024. The initial overall registration selection rate was 25.6%, with 120,603 registrations selected out of 470,342 eligible registrations.

BAL Analysis: News of a second lottery is a welcome development, though it remains to be seen how many additional registrations will be selected. USCIS will announce when it has completed this second process of selections and notifications. BAL will provide updates as information becomes available.