USCIS to Conduct Second Random Selection for FY 2024 H-1B Cap Cases

On July 27, 2023, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made a significant announcement, stating that it will conduct a second random selection from the pool of previously submitted FY 2024 H-1B cap registrations. This decision was necessitated by the agency’s determination that additional selections were required to meet the FY 2024 numerical allocations. USCIS plans to select additional registrations from the previously submitted electronic registrations using its random selection process, and will provide updates once this second selection process is completed.

The announcement of a second lottery selection seems to be related to wide-spread concerns about the potential for multiple employers submitting H-1B registrations on behalf of a single beneficiary. The record-breaking 780,000 H-1B lottery registrations this year, with a strikingly low selection rate of approximately 14.6%, was largely due to duplicate applications. The USCIS reported that more than half the registrations, nearly 409,000, were for potential beneficiaries whose names were submitted multiple times. The increase in registrations this year from individuals whose names were submitted only once was much smaller — 350,000, up from 309,000 last year. While not explicitly illegal, this practice has raised substantial concerns within the USCIS that certain entities may have collaborated to submit multiple registrations for the same beneficiary, in an attempt to manipulate the system and unjustly inflate the chances of a beneficiary’s selection in the lottery. Investigations into these concerns had been initiated by USCIS, resulting in the denial and revocation of certain petitions, as well as its instituting referrals for potential criminal prosecution. The USCIS’s announcements and the media’s reports on this matter appear to have led to the intended “chilling effect” on the number of actual H-1B petitions filed from those that were selected in the initial lottery.

The implementation of a second lottery selection, while offering a glimmer of hope for many U.S. educated professionals, starkly illuminates the inherent flaws of the current H-1B cap registration process, specifically the recently introduced digital lottery process. The lack of any real safeguards within this system led to its foreseeable exploitation. Further, the exceedingly low annual H-1B quota allocation continues to hamper U.S. business and education. Ultimately, to secure an intelligent and truly merit-based immigration system, and to ensure that the U.S. continues to attract top talent globally, the registration process must be redressed, and the annual H-1B cap and the 7% cap on per country green card issuance must be significantly increased.