US to conduct 2nd lottery for H-1B visa, opens window for professionals overseas

In a rare move, the US will conduct a second lottery for the H-1B visa to decide on the successful applicants, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Wednesday.

This would open up another opportunity for the thousands of professionals who could not make it in the first random selection.

The USCIS said that a decision was taken after determining that the computerised draw of lots for H-1B visas conducted early this year did not give them enough number of Congressional mandated H-1B visas, according to PTI inputs.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that permits US firms to hire foreign employees in speciality jobs that require theoretical or technical competence. It is the most sought-after visa among Indian IT experts.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

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“We recently determined that we needed to select additional registrations to reach the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 numerical allocations. On July 28, we selected previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process,” the USCIS said in a statement, PTI reported.

“The petition filing period based on registrations selected on July 28 will begin on August 2 and close on November 3. Individuals with selected registrations will have their my USCIS accounts updated to include a selection notice, which includes details of when and where to file,” it said.

The move by the USCIS to conduct the second lottery will provide another chance to several applicants, including hundreds of Indian IT professionals, who could not make it in the first random selection.

Only petitioners with chosen registrations for FY 2022 are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, according to the federal government. For individuals having chosen registrations for FY 2022, the first filing period was from April 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.

The USCIS said an H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed at the correct service center and within the filing period indicated on the relevant registration selection notice.

For H-1B applications, online filing is not accessible. H-1B applications must be filed on paper, and a printed copy of the appropriate registration selection notification must be included with the FY 2022 H-1B cap-subject petition.

“Registration selection only indicates that petitioners are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions; it does not indicate that the petition will be approved. Petitioners filing H-1B cap-subject petitions, including those petitions eligible for the advanced degree exemption, must still submit evidence and establish eligibility for petition approval based on existing statutory and regulatory requirements,” the USCIS added.