2024 H-1B Visa Lottery Begins March 6th and Ends March 22nd

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made many important announcements and changes regarding this year’s H-1B visa lottery and the H-1B visa program. Below you will find a “cheat sheet” on the H-1B lottery and USCIS’s updates.

What are H-1B Visas and the H-1B Lottery?

H-1B visas are temporary nonimmigrant visas that area available to workers in “specialty occupations.” While USCIS’s definition of “specialty occupation” is quite complex, it generally refers to an occupation that requires at least a 4-year bachelor’s degree in a specific field or fields – for example, most accountants must have at least a 4-year accounting degree to enter the occupation.

The Immigration and Nationality Act limits the number of H-1B visas to 85,000 per year (20,000 of which are reserved for workers with U.S. master’s degrees). Because the demand for H-1B visas each year is greater than the yearly allotment of visas, USCIS conducts a lottery each year to determine which companies and workers may submit H-1B visa applications. Note also that a small number of employees and employers, such as certain nonprofits, are exempt from that yearly visa limit.

When is This Year’s Lottery?

This year’s lottery registration will be available from noon Eastern Time on March 6, 2024, and run through noon Eastern Time on March 22, 2024.  We expect USCIS to announce the results of the lottery in late March 2024.  If selected, the H-1B petition must be filed within 90 days. The earliest that a worker may begin working on an H-1B visa based on this year’s lottery is October 1, 2024. However, some F-1 students with OPT employment authorization and who apply for an October 1, 2024 H-1B visa may be eligible to continue their employment under USCIS’s “cap gap” exception. Please reach out to us if you have questions about this.

What is Different About This Year’s Lottery?

The lottery is now “beneficiary centric.” In past years, multiple companies could submit lottery registrations for the same potential employee (who USCIS refers to as a “beneficiary”). The lottery would randomly select from those registrations to determine which company and beneficiary could submit an H-1B petition. Unfortunately, this process led to significant fraud, in which several or even dozens of companies would submit registrations for the same beneficiary, thereby unfairly increasing the chances that the beneficiary would have one of his or her registrations selected in the lottery.

To combat this misuse of the lottery, USCIS has changed the process from “registration centric” to “beneficiary centric.” Multiple employers may still submit registrations for the same beneficiary, but each beneficiary will be entered only once in the lottery. Consequently, each beneficiary will have an equal chance of selection regardless of how many registrations are filed on his or her behalf. When a beneficiary with multiple registrations is selected, all the employers who registered that beneficiary will be notified, and any of them could submit the H-1B petition for the beneficiary. In these scenarios, the beneficiary will be able to choose which of his or her registering employers will file the H-1B petition.

Launch of Organizational Accounts and Online H-1B Filings Begins February 28th

Online Filing through USCIS Organizational Accounts

On February 28, 2024, USCIS will launch a new feature in its online account platform for organizations and companies. These accounts will allow employers to collaborate with their legal representatives to submit H-1B lottery registrations and H-1B petitions through the online platform. This is an exciting update, moving USCIS closer to the 21st century. It will allow attorneys and companies quicker access to USCIS notices including receipt and approval notices and cut down on the inefficiencies of paper filings.

However, there are also limitations to the online system, including how employers may link accounts for their various stakeholders, and in the types of cases that may be filed. For example, USCIS confirmed that it cannot currently accept an online application for a dependent visa for the spouse or child of an H-1B applicant. For the time being, those applications must still be filed by mail, and if the beneficiaries wish to file the H-1B and dependent visa applications concurrently, then all the applications must be filed together by mail.

For employers who are interested in taking advantage of the new online accounts, USCIS is offering weekly “Tech Talks” on the subject. Click here for more information.

USCIS Announced Major Fee Increases Effective April 1st

USCIS also published a final rule this week, announcing new filing fees to go into effect April 1, 2024. As the effective date of the rule follows the H-1B visa lottery, this year’s lottery registration fee will continue to be $10 per registration, as was the case last year. However, next year’s lottery registration fee will jump to $215 per registration.

While the lottery registration fees will not take effect until next year, H-1B petitions filed after the lottery selection will be subject to USCIS’s new fee schedule. Those fees have increased significantly and have become more complicated, as USCIS will require different fees from different types of employers. The three categories of employers for filing fee purposes are:

• Nonprofits (tax exempt under 501(c)(3) and governmental research organizations)
•  Small employers with 25 or fewer full time employees, including affiliates and subsidiaries
• All other employers

The new fees depending on the employer type areas are as follows:

Carter Law Group would be honored to assist you in this year’s H-1B season. Please contact us with any questions or to get started on your lottery registrations!

Any Questions?  Contact Carrie@CarterVisaLaw.com or call 508.532.0760