On April 1, 2024, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received enough initial electronic registrations for unique individuals for the fiscal year 2025 (“FY25”) H-1B cap, as well as the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) and have randomly selected enough properly submitted registrations. The Service has completed the notifications to all employers who submitted online registrations. Those with selected registrations may begin filing H-1B cap subject petitions for FY2025 as of the first of April and have been given until June 30 to file their petition with the service either on paper at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov within the filing period that is indicated on the selection notice.

The online accounts of registrants are now displaying one of the following annotations for each registration:

Submitted – A registration was submitted and is eligible for selection. The registration remains eligible, unless subsequently invalidated, after the initial selection process has been completed, and remains valid for any subsequent selections for the fiscal year.
Selected – Registration was selected to file a cap-subject H-1B petition for FY25.
Not Selected – Registration is not eligible to file a cap-subject H-1B petition for FY25.
Denied – duplicate registration: Multiple registrations were submitted by or on behalf of the same registrant for the same beneficiary. If denied as a duplicate registration, all registrations submitted by or on behalf of the same beneficiary for FY25 are invalid.
Invalidated-Failed Payment – A registration was submitted, but the payment method used was declined, not reconciled, or otherwise invalid.
Deleted: The submitted registration has been deleted and is no longer eligible for selection.
Processing submission: USCIS is processing their submission. It may take up to 72 hours for all of the case information to show on the case details page. While it is processing, the petitioner will be unable to access their draft.

USCIS reminds petitioners, that when submitted, cap subject petitions, filed either on paper or online, must include a copy of the applicable selection notice. USCIS also notes that H-1B petitions must be filed using the 04/01/24 edition of the form I-129 petition and include fees in accordance to the fee schedule that went into effect on April 1, 2024. We will continue to update you on the FY2025 H-1B Cap as we receive updates from the Service.

UPDATE July 30, 2024: USCIS reported they will be conducting a second random selection from previously submitted FY 2025 H-1B Cap Registrations. Although a specific date for the selection was not announced, the Service noted it would be “soon”. An announcement upon competition of the second random selection and notifications to all prospective petitioners who will be eligible to file H-1B cap subject petitions are sent out will be forthcoming. Registrants will have their myUSCIS accounts updated to include the selection notice which will detail when and where to file their petitions for FY2025.

UPDATE May 1, 2024: USCIS reported having received approximately 442,000 registrations from unique beneficiaries for the FY2025 cap. Of these registrations, the service selected 114,017 (approximately 25.8%) to meet the annual H-1B quota of 85,000.

The beneficiary-centric cap selection process, introduced for the FY 2025 cap to reduce the submission of multiple registrations on behalf of the same foreign national thereby unfairly increase the foreign national’s chance of selection the lottery, has proven to be a success. The system remarkably decreased the number of registrations received this year, tallying 479,342 from the record high number of registrations submitted in FY24 which totaled 758,994 and prompted fraud investigations.