U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2024 H-1B cap season lottery will open at 12pm EST on March 1, 2023, and will run through 12pm EST on March 17, 2023.
Because the demand for H-1B visas typically exceeds the number of H-1B visas available for a given year under the quota, USCIS conducts an annual lottery in order to determine which petitions will be selected for full adjudication to receive an H-1B visa.
This year, USCIS will be using the same electronic registration process that it implemented two cycles ago (note: webpage not yet updated for FY 2024 cycle).
Prospective petitioners will be able to create new accounts on myUSCIS starting on February 21, 2023. Please do not create an account before then as it will not be the correct type.
During the registration period, attorneys and employers will submit an electronic registration for all employees that they seek to sponsor for the upcoming fiscal year through their myUSCIS online account. The registration fee is $10. To register, basic company and biographic information about the beneficiary is entered into the system, which will generate a unique confirmation number. At the close of the registration period, USCIS will conduct the random lottery selection process. The government states that it intends to notify selected registrants by March 31st, but historically, the notifications have bled over into April. Selected registrants will have 90 days from the date of notification by which to submit the complete H-1B petition to USCIS for processing.
As always, the earliest effective date for a FY 2024 H-1B petition to activate is October 1, 2023.
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