USCIS Received 38% Less H1B Registrations for FY 2025 Season.

Similar to previous years, USCIS held an H1B Lottery for H1B visa Fiscal Year(FY) 2025 season as well. This week they announced the total number of registrations that were submitted for this fiscal year and shared some metrics.

In this article, we will review those numbers shared by USCIS and review insights around the same, including numbers from previous years and how they all stack up.

Background of H1B Visa 2025 Season, Lottery

USCIS, as part of their standard H1B registration process for the H1B FY 2025 season, accepted H1B registrations starting from March 6th, 2024, until March 25th, 2024. They announced on April 1st, 2024, that the first round of the H1B Lottery for the FY 2025 season was completed, and all the results were notified. However, they did not release any numbers of the total registrations or other statistics during that time. Read more at USCIS Notifies H1B 2025 Lottery results, Cap reached.

All the employers with selected applicants during the first round lottery can file for an H1B petition with USCIS from April 1st until June 30th, 2024. They have 90 days to file an H1B petition. If they do not file during that window, the selected H1B registration is considered wasted, and you cannot transfer or do anything with it. You can read the next steps after H1B Lottery.

Let’s now look at the H1B registrations numbers and metrics for the FY 2025 season.

480K H1B Registrations Submitted for FY 2025 Season

USCIS did not make any official press release on the total number of H1B registrations submitted with them. Similar to previous years, they updated its H1B Registrations page today, indicating details about the total number of H1B Registrations submitted during the FY 2025 season. Below are the numbers and insights.

H1B Beneficiaries Statistics for FY 2025 Season

As the new H1B Lottery process is based on the unique beneficiary(applicant), USCIS also published metrics around the H1B applicants. Below are the metrics

• Unique Beneficiaries/ Applicants: The total number of unique H1B beneficiaries/ applicants for the FY 2025 season was around 442,000. During the previous year for FY 2024, it was around 446,000.
• Unique Employers/ H1B Sponsors: The number of unique employers or H1B sponsors for the FY 2025 season was around 52,700. For the last season, which is H1B FY 2024, it stood at around 52,000.

H1B Registrations Statistics for FY 2025 Season

• Total Submitted: USCIS said, they received a total of 479,953 (approximately 480K) H1B Registrations for the FY 2025 season.
• Total Eligible: Of the total 480K H1B registrations submitted, the total number of eligible H1B registrations stood at 470,342 (approximately 470K).
• Why Difference: The difference of 9,611 (479,953-470,342) between submitted vs. eligible registrations is accounted for the duplicate registrations, failed payments, and others deleted by employers before the close of the registration period
• Single Employer H1B Applicants: Of the total eligible 470K H1B registrations, the number of H1B applicants with only one H1B registration stood at 423,028(approximately 423K). This means that all 423,028 applicants filed H1B registration with only one employer and had only one H1B job offer.
• Multiple Employers Filed H1B Applicants: Of the total eligible 470K H1B registrations, the number of H1B applicants with multiple H1B registrations stood at 47,314(approximately 47K). This means all these 47,314 applicants filed H1B registrations with more than one H1B employer as they had multiple H1B offers.
• Selected Beneficiaries, H1B Registrations: With the new lottery system, USCIS Selected 114,017 beneficiaries resulting in a total 120,603 H1B registrations to be selected. They have picked about 35,603 (120,603-85,000) more H1B registrations than the actual H1B Cap quota to account for denials, non-filings, etc.

How much drop in H1B Registrations for FY 2025? Why?

If we look at the above numbers, the total number of H1B registrations submitted during the H1B FY 2025 season dropped significantly from the previous FY 2024 season.

Last year, for FY 2024, they received 758,994 eligible H1B registrations, compared to current FY 2025 season, they received only 470,342 eligible H1B registrations. If we do the math, it is a 38% reduction in the total number of H1B registrations filed with USCIS.

USCIS attributes the drastic reduction in the H1B registrations submitted to the change in H1B Lottery process that was introduced this fiscal year. You can read more at new H1B Lottery selection Process from FY 2025 season.

Also, the total number of H1B registrations of 480K, which were received for this fiscal year 2025, is also inline with our H1B Lottery prediction that we did earlier, which was predicted to be anywhere from 420K to 500K.

H1B FY 2025 Lottery Selection Odds?

I am not a statistician, but, let’s do some simple math to come up with some facts and find the ratio of registrations to available H1B Visa Quota Cap:

H1B Lottery Selection Odds, Comparion with FY 2024.

• Registrations / Availability Ratio = 479,953/85,000 = 5.65
• The above ratio means that for 1 H1B visa cap slot, USCIS received 5.65 H1B registrations. If we round it, USCIS got about 6 H1B registrations for one available H1B cap slot. If we compare the same with previous year for FY 2024, it was 9 H1B registrations for one available H1B cap solot
• The chances of selection are: 85,000/479,953 = 17.7%
• The above percentage means that out of 100 H1B registrations submitted, only 18 would be selected in the H1B Lottery. Compared to previous year for FY 2024, only 11 would be selected in the H1B Lottery out of 100.

USCIS did not release any data on the split of the H1B registrations by Masters quota vs. Regular quota and other metrics related to employers. In previous years, they used to release those numbers, but this year, they did not include those numbers.

H1B Registrations Filing Trend FY 2021- FY 2025

USCIS also released the complete data set related to the previous four years as part of this year’s data update. Below are the H1B registrations and lottery selections trend during the last five fiscal years.

In terms of the H1B registrations submissions & selection data released by USCIS, below is the exact table that USCIS released. The above graph is also based on the below data in the table.

What do you think of the H1B registration numbers by USCIS for FY 2025? Will there be second-round lottery? Share your thoughts in comments section below.

Reference: Check USCIS H1B Registration Page