On July 30, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would select additional H-1B cap “lottery” registrations to reach its fiscal year (FY) 2025 numerical quota. This second selection round will include registrations that indicated eligibility for the H-1B master’s cap, as well as those registrations that indicated eligibility for the regular H-1B cap. USCIS will not conduct a second selection round for the master’s cap, as sufficient registrations were selected and received to meet the FY 2025 master’s cap numerical allocation.
Annual availability of new H-1B petitions is limited to 85,000 per FY. If USCIS receives more H-1B registrations than available, the agency conducts a random lottery and the petitioners for those selected registrations may proceed to file an H-1B petition within 90 days. Beneficiaries who have earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher may be eligible for the advanced degree exemption called the master’s cap, which sets aside 20,000 registrations for the initial lottery selection. USCIS received 470,342 eligible registrations and selected 120,603 during its FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period in March 2024 and petitions were due by June 30. Once USCIS completes its second selection round and meets the H-1B cap allocation, petitioners will have 90 days to file H-1B petitions for selected registrations.