H-1B visa: Entry to the US may not take place till September 21, 2023.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that it will hold a second round of random lottery selection for H-1B visa for fiscal 2024, starting October 1, 2023. The initial lottery, held in March this year, was randomly selected from correctly submitted electronic registrations for the yearly cap. The filing timeframe for the selected registrations was allotted from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. USCIS said that candidates with approved registrations will have their myUSCIS account updated.
"We recently determined that we would need to select additional registrations to reach the FY 2024 numerical allocations. Soon, we will select additional registrations from previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process," the agency said on its website.
"We will announce once we have completed this second selection process and have notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round of selection that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration," it added.
As mandated by US Congress, USCIS is authorised to issue 85,000 H-1B visas annually (65,000 regular plus additional 20,000 for students).
As per WR Immigration, about 70 per cent of the authorised quota has been issued. Though USCIS has not announced any date, there are expectations that the second-round lottery will be held in August this year.
Once approved, H-1B employees abroad will have to make an appointment at a US consulate or embassy before the H-1B travel visa can be issued. However, entry to the US may not take place till September 21, 2023, 10 days before the start of the 2024 fiscal year.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.