H-1B Lottery 2023 - The Ultimate Guide

What is the H-1B Lottery?

A few weeks ago, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for H-1B visas would start on March 1, 2023 and stay open through the March 20, 2023 for the fiscal year starting in October 2024. During this window, prospective employers and representatives can submit their registrations using the online USCIS H1-B registration.

Each registration must be completed electronically and each applicant pays a $10 registration fee. For each registration submitted for the FY 2024 H1-B cap, USCIS will assign a confirmation number, which can be used to track the registration online. If the agency receives enough registrations through March 18, 2023, they will randomly select registrations from the pool and notify the registrant by March 31.

As we said in an earlier blog post regarding the H-1B process, the number of H-1B visa issued are capped at 65,000, with another 20,000 reserved for US Masters’ degree holders. While this means that not everyone seeking an H1-B visa will be issued one, the USCIS has had to conduct multiple lotteries in recent years to allocate all of the visas available. According to the study done by a study by the National Foundation for American Policy, the number of applicants for H-1B visas declined from almost 190,000 in the FY 2019 to 125,000 in the FY2020 to a mere 62,000 in the FY2021. This led to USCIS conducting two visa lotteries in 2021 because they failed to have enough applicants. The study concluded that the decline was likely due in part to reduced travel and mobility on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is unknown whether there will be a similar decline in registrations for the FY 2023 H1-B registration season, but it may be less competitive than before the pandemic began.

There is also a recent trend of fewer H1-B petitions being denied by USCIS. According to USCIS data, the approval rate for H-1B visas in the FY 2021 was 97.3%. The agency received 398,267 petitions for either initial and continuing employment or renewals during this period. This jump in approval can most likely be attributed to the high demand for talent in the growing tech industry as well as the policy shift under the current administration. Biden's more liberal approach towards immigration contrasts with the highly restrictive immigration policy seen under the Trump administration.

Larger companies like Amazon (6,182 approvals), Infosys (5,256 approvals), Google (1,453 approvals), and Microsoft (1,240 approvals) reap high benefits from being able to select top talent via the H1-B visa program, but this does not mean that smaller businesses and startups cannot take advantage of the same opportunity. Regardless of the size of a company, each applicant must adhere to the same requirements and demonstrate financial viability and ability to compensate the foreign employee during their stay. For small companies and startups, this can be a very difficult thing to prove, but an experienced immigration attorney can walk you through the process. Once a company can show these things, they are on equal footing with everyone else in the H1B lottery, so a smaller company should not be intimidated by having to “compete” with the larger tech companies.

Meanwhile, applicants can apply for cap-exempt jobs to skip the H1B lottery if they are concerned about the H1B lottery requirements and chances.

With the FY 2023 H1-B registration season just weeks away, reach out to the immigration attorneys at Xu Law Group to help guide you through the process.

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