U.S. completes second lottery round for H-1B visa, successful candidates notified

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The U.S. has completed a second round of random lottery selection for the much sought-after H-1B work visa for foreign guest workers and the successful applicants have been notified, according to a federal agency.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. 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.

“We now have randomly selected, from the remaining FY 2024 registrations properly submitted, a sufficient number of registrations projected as needed to reach the cap,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Tuesday.

All the successful applicants eligible for the H-1B visas for the fiscal year beginning October 1, have been notified about it, it said.

USCIS had to conduct an unprecedented second round of the H-1B lottery, which is held in the first week of April, mainly because of a large number of unqualified applications that were successful in the first H-1B lottery.

“The large number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations – much larger than in previous years – has raised serious concerns that some may have tried to gain an unfair advantage by working together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary,” USCIS said.