The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday that it has selected enough entries to meet the H-1B visa cap for the fiscal year 2025 after conducting a second lottery for specialty occupation visas.
USCIS has informed employers whose registrations were selected that they can now proceed with their visa petitions.
Each year, only 85,000 H-1B visas are available due to a statutory cap, which includes 20,000 set aside for workers holding at least a master’s degree. The agency confirmed that it has already filled the cap for advanced degree holders.
The initial lottery in March was the first to occur after changes were made to the annual selection process. In January, USCIS issued new regulations that updated the filing fees for H-1B petitions and revised the lottery process to focus on individual beneficiaries rather than the total number of registrations.