USCIS Completes All H-1B Lottery Selections for FY2023

USCIS announced today that they have received enough H-1B petitions to meet the statutory limits for FY 2023, which will begin on October 1, 2022.  Unlike the last two years, USCIS will not be running a second or third lottery this year (unfortunately). 

Employers who registered foreign nationals for the H-1B lottery in March should have received a notification from USCIS about a case update over the last few days.  Once the employer signs into their account, they will see a notice confirming that the registration was not selected in this year’s H-1B lottery.  For registrations that were not selected, no further action by the employer or foreign national is required. 

Many of us were expecting USCIS to run a second or third lottery this year based on the last two years, so this is disappointing news.  If you would like to discuss alternative visa options, please contact me.   Otherwise, we will reach out to employers early next year to see if they would like to submit registrations for the H-1B lottery in 2023. 

By way of background, the U.S. immigration statute allows a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas to be issued each year and an additional 20,000 H-1B visas for foreign nationals with a US master’s degree.  Because employer demand for H-1B visas far exceeds the number of H-1B visas available, USCIS runs an annual lottery in March. Employers submit an online registration during a two-week window in March and USCIS selects registrations at the end of the month. Employers then have 90 days to submit a complete H-1B petition on behalf of the foreign national for a start date of October 1.  An overview of the requirements and process is available here for your reference.

This alert is for informational purposes only.  Please contact us if you would like to discuss this development further.