United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced yesterday that it will conduct a second selection from the H-1B registrations submitted in March 2023.  Each Federal Fiscal Year, 65,000 H-1B visas are available, with an additional 20,000 H-1B visas available for those holding U.S. masters or doctoral degrees. Employers seeking new H-1B status for their employees must register in March for an opportunity to receive one of those H-1B visas at the start of the Federal Fiscal Year in October.

In March 2023, USCIS received a record 780,884 registrations, with over 400,000 of those registrations being for beneficiaries with multiple registrants. In other words, more than one employer had submitted a registration for the same potential employee. As a result of this, and other factors, despite USCIS making an initial selection of 110,791 registrations, it did not fill the 85,000 H-1B visa quota with the initial selection.

Accordingly, USCIS will now conduct a second selection from those registrations made in March 2023. Employers who entered the March 2023 registration will not have to re-register. Additionally, no new registrations can be made at this time. USCIS has not provided a timeframe for the selections, but it will announce when the registration is complete.