United States: USCIS Received Record Number of Eligible Registrations for the FY 2024 H-1B Cap, Including Surge in Multiple Registrations Per Individual

There are several reasons for the dramatic increase in the number of registrations for the FY 2024 season.  At least some of surge was attributable to normal increases in demand in a persistently tight labor market.   But the most significant contributor was a marked increase in beneficiaries for whom more than one registration was filed.  According to USCIS, some 408,891 registrations were submitted for individuals who benefited from multiple sponsors submitting cap registrations on their behalf, thus increasing their odds of selection in the H-1B lottery.  Though there are circumstances in which multiple registrations are permissible, this year’s surge has raised concerns about potential misuse of the H-1B registration system, prompting USCIS to begin investigations and in some cases prepare criminal referrals to law enforcement.

USCIS rules restrict the circumstances under which a single beneficiary can be registered for the cap lottery by multiple sponsors.  For each registration, the sponsoring organization must attest that it has a bona fide job offer for the registration beneficiary and has not worked with another individual or entity to unfairly increase the odds of selection in the cap lottery.  There are circumstances in which a single foreign national may legitimately be registered for the lottery by multiple entities – for example, where the foreign national has received bona fide job offers from several unrelated employers.  Multiple registrations become problematic, however, when sponsors do not make bona fide job offers and are attempting to unfairly increase a beneficiary’s chances of selection in the lottery.

There are many unanswered questions about the trend in multiple registrations this cap season and in USCIS’s plans to address that trend.  However, in press reports today, agency officials indicated that they had evidence of collusion between “several dozen” small technology firms that allegedly sought to secure large numbers of lottery selections, petition for winning beneficiaries, then place those beneficiaries at third-party worksites or terminate their employment to allow them to take up H-1B employment with other employers.  It is not yet clear whether USCIS’s enforcement efforts center on the entities that submitted the registrations or whether they may extend to entities at which affected H-1B workers are placed or to which they transfer.  Employers who are presented with opportunities to hire or receive placements of individuals originally sponsored by little-known or seemingly questionable entities should contact their Fragomen team as soon as possible.

The low rate of lottery selection has caused significant concern in the business community, with many employers left unable to meet their H-1B employment needs.  It is not yet clear whether USCIS will run a second lottery for cap employment in FY 2024.  It is unlikely that USCIS will make a decision on a second lottery until July at the earliest, after the petition filing period for selected registrants closes.  During the FY 2021 and 2022 cap seasons, USCIS conducted multiple selections to reach the cap, but did not do so during the FY 2023 season.

Fragomen is closely monitoring the FY 2024 H-1B cap and related investigatory and enforcement efforts by USCIS and other agencies.  If you have any questions about this alert, please contact your designated Fragomen representative or the firm’s Government Strategies and Compliance Group.