USCIS announced today that it will conduct a second H-1B selection from previously submitted FY 2025 H-1B cap registrations. In March of 2024, USCIS conducted an initial lottery for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap. Petitioners whose registrations were selected for FY 2025 were permitted to file H-1B cap-subject petitions within the specified filing window on their registration selection notice, which ran from April 1 to June 30, 2024.

USCIS determined that because additional registration selections were required to meet the FY 2025 regular cap numerical allocation, USCIS will conduct an additional random selection from the pool of previously submitted electronic registrations. Petitioners whose registrations are selected in this second round will be informed of their eligibility to file an H-1B cap-subject petition via their USCIS online accounts and will be given a 3-month filing window to submit the H-1B petition.

There will be no second lottery for the advanced degree exemption (the master’s cap) since the number of selected registrations and petitions received is already sufficient to meet the FY 2025 master’s cap numerical allocation. The second round of selection for the regular cap will include previously submitted registrations that indicate eligibility for both the master’s cap and the regular cap.

This year, for the first time, USCIS is making selections for unique beneficiaries.  That is, when making selections, USCIS will only count each individual once and will notify each company that made a registration on that person’s behalf of the selection. Because of this, no person selected in the first round should be selected again.

USCIS will announce when the second selection process and notification phase has concluded. Global Immigration Partners will provide a future alert once USCIS makes this announcement.