H-1B Lottery Pre-Registration Review
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H-1B Lottery Pre-Registration: With the H-1B lottery season for the fiscal year 2023 fast approaching, below is an outline of the H-1B lottery process. The outline will guarantee that you have all the data you need so that you are completely ready and prepared for the process:
DHS has removed the H-1B selection rule based on wage level. The lottery has returned to its normal guidelines.
H-1B Lottery Pre-Registration Facts & Timeline
Timelines are based on registration from the 2022 fiscal year. However, any further changes by the Government, here is what you want to know:
- The 2023 Fiscal Year H-1B Cap Lottery is totally random.
- Our review process of Cap cases will start in January. To guarantee we can advise in an effective and timely manner, we should have all the necessary data before 15th February 2022.
- We expect the H-1B Cap filing window to open on 1st April.
- We have 90-days from the projected 1st April start date to submit the H-1B Petition.
- Approved applicants will not be able to move to H-1B status until the start of the Government’s 2023 fiscal year, on 1st October 2022.
- As it did for last year’s lottery, the Government might conduct extra lottery drawings in June and October.
Key Dates
- H-1B Cap Serotte Law review due 15th February.
- The H-1B Cap Registration period will open on 9th March around early afternoon Eastern.
- H-1B Cap Registration period will close on 25th March around early afternoon Eastern.
- Registrants will be notified on March 31st if they made it into the lottery.
H-1B Cap Candidates
- Recent graduates from U.S. colleges whom you have recruited in the U.S. with F-1 OPT status.
- Foreign employees residing outside the U.S. who you might need to hire and bring over to the U.S.
- Foreign nationals who have not held H-1B status previously within the last six years.
[Biden Plans New Effort to Retain International Science and Tech Students]
Additional Information
There are 65,000 H-1B Cap positions available for candidates with a U.S. bachelor’s degree or a foreign bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or higher. Extra 20,000 are available exclusively for applicants who have U.S. master’s degrees. As with earlier years, we expect many more than those numbers to apply (last year it was over 300,000 registrations), and so USCIS will conduct a ‘lottery’ to randomly select the 85,000 candidates who can apply for and get these new H-1Bs.
