USCIS will soon be announcing the opening of the fiscal year (FY) 2025 H-1B Lottery. We expect a few changes on the FY2025 Lottery which were announced by USICS on January 12, 2024.

 Expected changes:

• New organizational accounts for employers: these accounts will be available for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B electronic registration season which would enable a group of individuals authorized by the employer to collaborate with the attorney in preparing and submitting electronic H-1B registrations.
• Electronic Filings: a new feature will be available for electronic filing of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, and Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for H-1B petitions.
• Filing Fee Increase: it is anticipated price adjustments will be:
• Form I-129 H-1B: from $460 to $780 effective April 1st, 2024
• Premium Processing fee increase, effective for petitions filed after February 26, 2024, with the new fee set at $2800, up from $2500.

H-1B Cap and Lottery Registration Process

Based on previous H-1B lottery registrations, the electronic registration period for the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 2025) is expected to run from March 1, 2024 to March 20, 2024. Each year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects 65,000 H-1B registrations for foreign nationals with at least a bachelor’s degree, and an additional 20,000 petitions for foreign nationals with an advanced degree from a U.S. institution. A computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the "lottery") is used to select a sufficient number of registrations to meet the 65,000 “regular cap.” The remaining registrations that are eligible for the H-1B advanced degree exemption and that were not selected under the regular cap are then placed into a separate lottery for random selection to meet the 20,000 “master’s cap.” 

Prospective petitioners (also known as “registrants”) who wish to file H-1B cap-subject petitions will be required to register electronically and pay the associated $10 registration fee for each beneficiary. 

A petitioner is only eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition if they electronically register the beneficiary during the registration period and USCIS selects the registration submitted for the beneficiary through the random selection process. For Y2025, the USCIS is considering a shift from H-1B lottery-based registration to a system where registrants are selected uniquely by beneficiary. Additionally, there is a proposal to disallow related entities from submitting multiple registrations for the same beneficiary.

Once the beneficiary’s registration is selected in the lottery, the petitioner will need to file a complete petition with supporting documentation within 90 days to establish the beneficiary’s eligibility for a FY 2025 H-1B (October 1, 2024). Below is an estimated timeline with the steps for us to prepare and submit the H-1B registrations and petitions on your behalf. Please note that USCIS has not announced this year’s H-1B registration process, so there is a possibility that there will be changes to the process outlined below, which we will confirm either way as soon as the information is announced.

Estimated H-1B Registration Timeline 

February 24, 2024 - March 1, 2024: prospective employers may begin to create a myUSCIS registrant account (N/A if you already have an H-1B registrant account from last year’s electronic registration)

March 1, 2024: H-1B registration period opens. During this timeframe, our office will register each prospective H-1B employee you wish to sponsor.

March 20, 2024: H-1B registration period closes 

March 31, 2024: date by which USCIS intends to notify registrants selected in the lottery 

April 1, 2024: earliest date that H-1B cap-subject petitions for October 1, 2021 may be filed

June 30, 2024: filing deadline for H-1B cap-subject petitions that were selected in the initial lottery

Employers should contact the GC Ungo Immigration as soon as possible with information about the employees who should be registered in the H-1B lottery. We will assess employees’ eligibility, confirm the position qualifies as a specialty occupation, and then prepare the registration to be submitted on the applicable date.