The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has concluded the lottery process to select beneficiaries for the sought-after American H1B visas for the fiscal year 2025. Following the closure of the initial H1B sign-up period on March 25, USCIS confirmed the random selection of candidates and began dispatching notifications to their ‘myUSCIS’ accounts. Despite a technical glitch causing a three-day extension of the application deadline, USCIS assured potential petitioners of their eligibility to submit a petition subject to the H1B cap. The demand for H-1B visas consistently surpasses the annual limit of 85,000, leading USCIS to resort to a lottery system for selection. While Indian tech professionals have historically dominated H1B visa recipients, USCIS anticipates a decline in applications this year due to heightened anti-fraud measures. Starting next month, USCIS will shift the H-1B Form I-129 filing location to a lockbox, requiring all paper-based petitions to be sent to USCIS lockbox facilities without any grace period for submissions received at service centers on or after April 1, 2024.

Source: MSN