United States: H-1B Cap Is Reached for FY 2025
December 2, 2024
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At a glance
- USCIS announced today that it has received enough cap petitions to fill the 85,000 slots available for H-1B employment in the current fiscal year.
- Earlier this year, USCIS conducted two separate lottery selections, in March and August, to select enough cap registrations to meet the quota.
- The agency will not run a third cap lottery selection for H-1B employment in FY 2025.
A closer look
USCIS has received enough petitions to meet the annual H-1B quota of 85,000 for Fiscal Year 2025, according to an agency announcement issued today.
The announcement means that USCIS will not conduct a third cap lottery selection for H-1B employment in the current fiscal year.
In March, employers submitted eligible registrations for approximately 442,000 unique beneficiaries during the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period. The agency conducted two cap lottery selections to choose enough petitions to meet the cap – an initial drawing in March, in which 114,017 unique beneficiaries (or approximately 26%) were selected, and a second cap lottery selection of an additional 13,607 unique beneficiaries in August. As a result, the overall selection rate of unique beneficiaries for FY 2025 was approximately 29%.
The new beneficiary-centric registration system introduced this year resulted in a drastic decrease in overall registrations submitted – 470,342 eligible registrations submitted in FY25, down from a record high of 758,994 submitted in FY24 – as well as a 38.6% decrease in the average number of registrations submitted per beneficiary. In FY24, there was an average of 1.7 registrations submitted per foreign national; in FY25, the average was only 1.06 registrations per foreign national.
What this means for employers and foreign nationals
The USCIS announcement means that there are no further opportunities for cap-subject H-1B employment in FY 2025; however, USCIS continues to accept petitions for H-1B employment that is not subject to the cap, including extensions of stay, changes of employer, amended petitions, and employment that is exempt from the annual quota.
Registrations that were not chosen in either of the two FY 2025 lotteries will be reflected in the USCIS system as “Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration.” According to USCIS, the agency will send non-selection notices to employers that registered for the FY 2025 H-1B cap and their immigration counsel through their online accounts over the next few days.
Foreign nationals whose registrations were not selected can be re-registered by a sponsoring employer when the FY 2026 cap season begins in Spring 2025. Unselected registrations are not automatically carried over to the next fiscal year.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.
