Since USCIS announced that they would run a second-round lottery for the H1B Visa 2025 season, many have been waiting and anxious about their chances of selection. Though USCIS has not yet made any official announcement yet, we are seeing selection notices and notifications for the same trickle in.
In this article, we will examine the official and unofficial updates, including updates from community members and attorneys, on the second-round lottery of the H1B 2025 Season. We will also examine one of the selection notices from the second round lottery. We will continue to update this article as we receive more updates.
Before we get into the current updates, let’s briefly look at the background of what has happened with H1B FY 2025 season so far.
Background: H1B Visa 2025 Season Second Round Lottery
USCIS opened the H1B registration period for the FY 2025 season between March 6th, 2024, and March 25th, 2024. During the registration period, they received approximately 480K H1B registrations. They announced on April 1st, 2024, that they completed the first round lottery for the H1B FY 2025 season and notified all the selected applicants.
In the first round H1B lottery, USCIS selected 120,603 H1B Registrations. Due to the change in the H1B lottery system for the FY 2025 season, the total registrations selected ended up with 114,017 unique applicants being selected. The selected applicants were given a chance to file H1B petitions between April 1st and June 30th, 2024.
As USCIS did not receive enough H1B petitions from the selected applicants in the first round to meet the H1B cap for FY 2024, they announced earlier this week, on July 30th, 2024 that they would run a second round lottery to select more applicants. For more info read the article: USCIS to run Second Round Lottery for H1B FY 2025 Season
H1B 2025 Lottery Second Round Lottery Done, Results being Notified
Unofficial Updates from Attorneys and Applicants: Many attorneys and applicants/users confirmed starting from August 1st that they are seeing H1B selection notices from the second round H1B lottery for the FY 2025 season in their online USCIS accounts and also getting notifications of the same. We have more details on this in the next section with tweets/emails/messages confirming the same.
Official USCIS Update: USCIS made an official press release on August 5th, 2024 indicating that they completed the second round H1B lottery for the FY 2025 Season and notified everyone. They selected 14,534 Registrations as part of this second round. You can read more at article: H1B Second Round Lottery Completed for FY 2025 Season, 14534 Selected
In the sections below, we track both Unofficial and Official Updates on the H1B 2025 Lottey results. We will update these sections daily until we have the official press release from USCIS.
Updates Second Round Lottery Results for H1B 2025 Season (Official & Unofficial)
In the section below, we have all the updates from various attorneys and community users regarding the H1B 2025 second-round lottery results.
Updates from August 5th, 2024.
USCIS made an official press release today indicating that they completed the second round H1B lottery for the FY 2025 Season and notified everyone. They selected 14,534 Registrations as part of this second round. You can read more at article: H1B Second Round Lottery Completed for FY 2025 Season, 14534 Selected
Below is the screenshot of the official USCIS Press release as well
Updates from August 4th, 2024.
- No new updates from attorneys or users regarding the selections.
- There were no new selections being reported across social media by anyone.
Updates from August 3rd, 2024
- Attorneys Emily and Steven said that they did not see any new cases on Aug 3rd. They only saw new cases on Friday, but nothing on Saturday, Aug 3rd. See below screenshot of the updates from them
- Also, across social media, there are no new updates on the H1B selections from the user community or any other attorneys related to second round lottery. It seems there are no new selection notices being sent.
Updates from August 2nd, 2024
- We have updates from attorneys Steven Brown, and Emily Neuman from Reddy Neuman Brown Law Firm indicating that they are getting the email notifications for the selection notices of the second round H1B Lottery from yesterday. They say that the upload might have been completed for the selection notices.
- We also have updates from other attorney firms such as Attorney Rajiv Khanna, Attorney Jay Wu confirming the same that they are also receiving the notifications for the selection notices for the second round H1B lottery. See the below screenshot.
- We also have users from the community updating on Reddit saying that they were selected and got confirmation from their law firms and employers. Below is a screenshot of the same.
Updates from August 1st, 2024.
- We have updates from Reddy Neuman Brown Lawfirm indicating that they have started to see H1B Lottery Selection Notices from the second round in their MyUSCIS accounts. They have not received any emails from DHS yet. These are notifications that you get from USCIS to check the online account. As per them the filing window is from August 8th, 2024 to November 7th, 2024.
Selection notices have started trickling in on the MYUSCIS accounts for the #H1BLottery. No emails yet from DHS, but they have started uploading notices. The filing window is 8/8 through 11/7! @immigrationgirl @AttyStevenBrown @krystal_alanis https://t.co/FyFVBwXD7c
— Reddy Neumann Brown PC (@rnlawgroup) August 1, 2024
- We have some applicants/ users from community who confirmed that they were selected in the second round H1B Lottery. These updates are from Reddit, Telegram and Facebook. See the below screenshot of the same.
Also, we have one of the users who shared a part of the selection notice short screenshot from the second round, where it clearly tells the selection date as August 1st, 2024. See the below screenshot.
Sample H1B 2025 Selection Notice from Second Round Lottery
Below is an actual H1B Selection notice from the H1B FY 2025 Season Second Round Lottery Selection. It is redacted and shared by Attorney Steven from Reddy Neumann Brown Law firm for better clarity on the second round of H1B lottery results for the community. Thanks a lot to attorney Steven for sharing it with the community for everyone’s clarity. We really appreciate it!
What is the H1B Registration Selection Notice for FY 2025 Season Second Round Lottery?
In general, the H1B Registration Selection Notice is an I-797C Notice of Action, which is similar to any other like H4 Visa I-797C Receipt Notice. It would be of Case Type “H-1BR – H1B REGISTRATION”.
The second round H1B Registration Selection Notice is no different from the first round H1B Selection Notice. Just the filing dates are different. If you would like to understand the various fields and what they mean, read article: Sample H1B Registration Selection Notice – Fields Meaning
Similar to first-round H1B selection notice there is no USCIS service center details printed on the registration selection notice as USCIS is going to use Lockbox service. You can read more at USCIS H1B 2025 Changes – Lockbox, Online Filing Changes.
Below are the main differences in the text of the fields in the H1B Registration Selection Notice for FY 2025 season second round lottery, when compared with the first round selection notice:
- Notice Date: This is the date when the employer or sponsor was notified regarding the H1B Registration Selection. For the below sample notice, it is August 1st, 2024. It clearly tells that this was part of the second round lottery. If this were to be the first round, it would have been anywhere from 3/27/2024 to 3/31/2024.
- There is a new heading that says “FY 2025 Selection of Reserve Registration” indicating that this is the second round lottery. This was not there in the first round lottery selection notice.
- Filing Dates: The second round lottery selection notice has filing dates to submit the H1B Petition as 08/08/2024 to 11/07/2024. Similar to first round, they are giving 90 days duration to file the H1B Petition.
Sample H1B Selection Notice for FY 2025 Season, Second Round Lottery, Page 1
Sample H1B Selection Notice for FY 2025 Season, Second Round Lottery, Page 2
Below is the screenshot of the page 2 of the second round H1B lottery selection notice. It is same as the first round and does not have any applicant-related information or company details. It has details about disability accommodation.
H1B 2025 Tracker – Community Trends
Many of you are curious about how many were selected and what the trends look like. We have built an anonymous H1B Tracker by working with VisaGrader.com team, similar to previous years, where you can add your case information without sharing any personal information for community benefit. Add your H1B case in the anonymous tracker
If you have submitted H1B Registration for H1B FY 2024 season, please add your case to H1B Visa 2025 Case Tracker for community benefit. It is anonymous and used to track macro trends and helps everyone.
H1B 2025 Second Round Lottery Results Timeline – How long?
Usually, the H1B registration lottery selection results do not arrive for everyone at once. This is the same for the first and second rounds of the FY 2025 Season lottery. Even though it sounds like everything is electronic and everyone should be notified instantly, in the case of H1B lottery results, it does not work that way. This is based on the past history and how they have informed H1B lottery selection results in the last few years.
In general, the H1B Visa lottery results come down in batches over a period of a few days. It can take anywhere from a few days and sometimes up to a week for the selection notices to be generated and informed. For the second round, we may expect them to be done by early next week or maybe USCIS may update us today that they are done, hard to say. The reason is that we expect a lesser number of H1B selections in the second round.
USCIS will give a news alert at the end of the announcement of the H1B lottery results saying that they have informed everyone about the H1B FY 2025 second round lottery results. Until that official press release, you can continue to wait.
Let’s look at some common FAQs now.
Common FAQs on H1B 2025 Second Round Lottery results
USCIS has not made any announcement on the total number of selections yet. They are likely to release these numbers anytime after they notified everyone and do a press release on the same.
It is very hard to say at this point. Last year, there was a second round. Previously we also had second and third-round lottery as well. We must wait and see how many they have selected to make any assumptions about future lottery rounds. Check H1B Cap Count Updates History for past data.
You can file anytime between August 8th, 2024 and November 7th, 2024. Similar to first round, they are giving 90 days duration to file the H1B Petition.
Did you get selected in the second round H1B Lottery for FY 2025? Share your results with the community in the comments section below and exchange ideas.