Many of you who submitted H1B registrations for the H1B Visa 2025 season earlier in March and were not selected in the first round H1B Lottery might have been very curious about the possibility of a second round lottery. You are in luck, as USCIS made an official press release earlier today indicating that they would be conducting a second-round lottery for the H1B Visa FY 2025 season.
In this article, we will review the summary of the news update, what they plan to do, how it has worked in the past with the second-round lottery, and what to expect going forward for anyone selected in the second-round H1B lottery.
Update: As of August 2nd, 2024, many users and attorneys are reporting that H1B Lottery results for the Second round are coming in. No official USCIS update yet. For more, check the article: H1B 2025 Second round lottery results out, Sample Notice
Background: H1B FY 2025 First Round Lottery, Selections
USCIS had the H1B registration period for the FY 2025 season between March 6th, 2024, and March 25th, 2024. They announced on April 1st, 2024, that they completed the first round lottery for H1B FY 2025 season and notified all the selected applicants.
USCIS received approximately 480,000 H1B registrations during the registration period. As part of the first round H1B lottery, USCIS selected 120,603 H1B Registrations during the first round lottery. As the H1B lottery system changed for the FY 2025 season, the total registrations selected ended up with 114,017 unique applicants being selected.
News: USCIS will Conduct the Second Round H1B Lottery for FY 2025 Season
USCIS made an official press release earlier today indicating that they would conducting a second round H1B lottery for the FY 2025 Season. Below are the key points from the official press release by USCIS
- H1B First Round Lottery for FY 2025: USCIS reiterated that they conducted the first round lottery for the FY 2025 season, including those eligible for the US Masters quota in late March 2024. Those selected in the initial round were able to find the H1B petitions with USICS between April 1st and June 30, 2024.
- Need for Second Round H1B Lottery for FY 2025: They determined that they would need to select more H1B registrations to meet the H1B regular cap of 65,000. They plan to select additional H1B registrations to meet the H1B regular cap from the pool of H1B registrations that were submitted back in March 2024. They will be conducting random selection, aka H1B lottery, to select the additional H1B registrations to meet the H1B regular cap.
- Notification of Second Round Selections, Results: USCIS said that they would inform the selected applicants in the second round lottery similar to the previous first round and make an announcement after the second round H1B Lottery is completed. Those selected will have a selection notice in the USCIS online accounts.
- No Second Round Lottery for Masters Cap: They indicated that there will not be a second round H1B lottery for US Masters cap as they have enough US Masters cap petitions received to meet the 20,000 US Masters H1B cap.
- Second Round Lottery Pool includes Regular and Masters Applicants: As part of the Second round lottery for the FY 2025 season, they said that all the eligible H1B registrations submitted under the regular quota and masters quota would be eligible to be part of this lottery. The only catch is master’s quota applicants do not get any special lottery again as that 20,000 cap is already filled. You can read more at: How H1B Lottery works, the order of lottery .
How many H1B Registrations would be selected in Second Round Lottery?
As of today’s announcement, USCIS is yet to conduct the second round H1B lottery and has not released any numbers on how many H1B registrations will be selected for the FY 2025 season.
If we look at history, for FY 2024, USCIS selected 77,600 in second round H1B Lottery. Back then, they selected 110,791 registrations in the first round. The biggest difference back then was that the H1B Lottery process was different and there were many applicants with multiple filings.
Prior to that, for H1B FY 2023, there was no second-round lottery. But, for FY 2022 season they selected 27,717 in the second round H1B lottery. During the FY 2022 season, they selected 87,500 registrations for the first round. You can read the full history of H1B Cap Count Updates for more info
Now, looking at the past data and selections done for FY 2025 season, with the changes to the H1B Lottery process and there is no masters cap quota left, we can anticipate anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 H1B registrations to be selected in the second round H1B lottery for FY 2025 season. Again, this is a pure speculation and the numbers could be even less. We can only wait and see.
Update: As of August 2nd, 2024, many users and attorneys are reporting that H1B Lottery results for the Second round are coming in. No official USCIS update yet. For more, check the article: H1B 2025 Second round lottery results out, Sample Notice
Common FAQs
No, the H1B registration period is over for the FY 2025 season. You cannot submit H1B Registrations anymore. USCIS will only use the existing pool of H1B registrations submitted during the registration period for second round lottery.
No, there is no quota left for US masters cap. All the applicants, even the US Masters applicants will be in the same pool as everyone and lottery will be conducted for the combined pool.
USCIS does not inform all the selected applicants at once. Due to the way they conduct H1B lottery, they inform results over a period of few days. So, it can take anywhere from few days to a week to have the results. USCIS will make an announcement once they have completed the intimation of results, then you would know the lottery is complete for second round and all are informed.
No, you cannot check the results on your own. You must reach out to your employer to know the second round lottery results for H1B FY 2025. Read How to check H1B Lottery result online for more info.
Usually, USCIS gives 90 days of filing window for the selected applicants. If let’s say they completed lottery by July 31st, then 90 days window would be from August 1st, 2024 until October 30th, 2024. We need to wait and see what USCIS will come up with based on a selection notice.
What do you think of the second round H1B Lottery for FY 2025 season? How many can we expect? Share your predictions in comments section below.
I think they should select 20,000 to 25,000 applicants in the second round.
what is the last date for this? i mean when they gonna draw the lottery again?
Bharth,
Yes, they will run H1B lottery again. That’s why called second round. They have not really given us the details. It can happen anytime and they will inform once done. We have not seen any update on social media yet. Stay tuned on this page for updates.
Last year they notified On 27 Jul for second lottery and shared results by 31 Jul. So, people should get notified by end of this week most probably as per the trend.
Karan,
Let’s see. It is a possibility
Looks like your prediction gone wrong
Chan,
Our prediction was between 10K and 20K, the actual selected were 14K. I guess we are in the range 🙂