H-1B Lottery 2023 (FY2024): Recent Trends and What to Expect

Introduction

Each year skilled professionals apply for the most sought H-1B visa to work and enjoy living in the United States. They get a chance once a year to gain entry through an H-1B visa issued by the USCIS. For the last fiscal year (2023), USCIS received 483,927 applications, an approximate 57% increase over the fiscal year 2022.

Now, it’s a matter of concern for those looking to acquire an H-1B visa to work in their favorite spot in the world. Since the last fiscal year’s applications signify that only 26% of total applications were picked through the H-1B lottery, the substantial influx raises worries for petitioners and individuals hoping to get an H-1B visa for FY 2024.

However, if you keep an eye on the recent trends and predictions, you are likely to make it through the H-1B visa lottery. Keeping in mind the recent trends and predictions for the fiscal year 2024, we have outlined this blog to help you decode the possibility of getting selected in  the H-1B lottery.

So, let’s get started.

H-1B lottery: When did it start?

USCIS sets a fixed quota (85000 as of now) for non-immigrant professionals each year to grant H-1B visas. If the number of registrations exceeds the limit, the H-1B lottery situation arises. For the first time, the H-1B lottery happened in FY 2008, followed by FY 2009 due to the exceeding numbers of H-1B petitions received by the USCIS. However, after that, there was a gap of four years. Again in 2014, the lottery situation arose, and since then, it has been consecutively happening till last FY 2023.

H-1B Lottery process overview

Until 2019, petitioners had to fill out a complete H-1B petition within the first five days to be eligible for the H-1B lottery. It changed with the introduction of the online H-1B registration process effective in 2020, where the petitioner only needs to fill in a few personal details to register an individual for the lottery.

The introduction of this new system also bid farewell to paper-based petitions for the lottery selection. Now the computer-generated random selection known as the lottery takes place to pick the individuals to fill out actual H-1B petitions.

The first lottery is intended to pick out the professionals from the entire pool of H-1B petitions to fill the regular cap of 65,000. Then the unselected master quota petitions are picked out from the pool to fill the 20,000 master cap. This way, the ones holding a US master’s degree have a double chance to be picked through the H-1B lottery process.

Recent trends in H-1B

Observing recent trends always prove beneficial for petitioners and beneficiaries to stay ahead of the curve. Over the past few years, it has been observed that the number of registrations has gone up consistently. The fact suggests that since individual registration is now simple and inexpensive, the number of registrations is repeatedly increasing.

Let’s look at some stats that show the number of registrations consistently increasing over the past few fiscal years.

*As per USCIS

It has also been observed that the number of registered companies has dipped by 8% if we compare FY 2022 and FY 2021. In FY 2022, 37k employers accounts were created, while in FY 2021, 40k employers accounts were created. Here it does not signify that the companies are less enthusiastic about registering for foreign individuals.

Since the other data suggests that while the number of registered companies went down, the number of registrations for foreign nationals increased by 13%. So one can easily comprehend that now the companies understand how the system works, they do not create duplicate registrations anymore.

H-1B Lottery 2023 predictions

It’s no secret that the time for the H-1B lottery draws much excitement in the world of immigration. Our immigration expert team has analyzed the data and put together a list of potential predictions for this year’s results. Let’s have a look.

• Increase in registrations

Over the past two years, the H-1B registration system has been successful, and it is anticipated that more employers and individuals will register for the H-1B lottery for FY 2024. With an increase in registrations, however, it is expected that the chances of selection for an H-1B visa will decrease.

• Chance for a second lottery

Since we have seen at least two lottery rounds over the last three years consecutively, chances are likely that this time again, we can see a second round lottery too. Last year, USCIS gave new employers chances to file a full petition from mid-August to mid-November.

• Premium processing will be available

USCIS offers premium processing services to petitioners and individuals, and it is an extra benefit to expedite your petition process if you think it is taking too much time to process. Our team of immigration experts predicts that this year too, the premium processing service will be available for petitioners and individuals. Moreover, the fee for premium processing is $2500.

H1-B visa lottery- How can Imagility help you?

The Imagility Platform provides a guided approach to building the H1 story as it is being built, the key success elements and what factors are still left to be addressed.  Petitioners can engage Beneficiaries & Attorneys in petition building to generate a strong petition with the right tools and techniques built with machine learning capabilities. It’s powerful Petition Analysis feature highlights the missing details and suggests recommendations to building effective petitions, minimizing RFEs and denials, thus increasing ROI.

Hence, utilizing Imagility’s powerful immigration software capabilities, petitioners can efficiently guide their cases through each step of the process while maintaining greater control over every stage.

 • The Lottery App for Petitioners

The Imagility Lottery app is available for Petitioners, Attorneys and individuals (beneficiaries) to connect and track the lottery on the go.

Imagility’s Lottery App enables petitioners to accomplish several tasks in one place, including creating a robust company profile, viewing beneficiary registrations, co-branding with an attorney firm, and picking the best-qualified beneficiaries.

Download the app on Google play store today to embark on a successful immigration journey!