The second draw of the H-1B lottery for fiscal year 2025 is to be issued soon confirmed by the United States Immigration Department. The random selection will be from the previously submitted electronic registrations. USCIS announced it on 30 July through a statement on their official website.
When will be the second round of H-1B registration held?
As per USCIS, the department needs to choose more registrations to meet the FY 2025 regular cap. Though the exact lottery date has not been announced, it is expected to be held soon. The selected candidates will be informed in this second round that they can file an H-1B petition for the person named in the registration. If your registration is selected, your USCIS online account will be updated with a notice that tells you when and where to file.
Important to note is that there will not be a second round for the advanced degree exemption (the master’s cap), as USCIS has already had enough selected registrations and petitions to meet the FY 2025 master’s cap. The second selection for the regular cap will include registrations eligible for both the master’s cap and the regular cap.
First Draw details
After the initial draw in March 2024, the department has decided to issue a second draw to reach the cap of FY 2025 for the H-1B. The registration portal was open from 6 March 2024 till 26 March 2024 which means the registration pool is closed for the fiscal year 2025. Furthermore, the initial filing period for FY 2025 was from April 1 through June 30, 2024.
For the fiscal year 2025, there has been a slight decrease in beneficiary registrations (442,000) compared with last FY2024 (446,000) including the applications submitted on behalf of beneficiaries.
An average of 1.06 registrations per beneficiary has been recorded this year in FY 2025, more than 38 percent less than last year. The registration numbers are:
| unique beneficiaries | approximately 442,000 |
| unique employers | approximately 52,700 |
| eligible registrations | 470,342 |
The applications and registrations data from FY2021 to FY2025
| Cap Fiscal Year | Total Registrations | Eligible Registration | Eligible Registrations for Beneficiaries with No Other Eligible Registrations | Eligible Registrations for Beneficiaries with Multiple Eligible Registrations | Selected Registrations |
| 2021 | 274,237 | 269,424 | 241,299 | 28,125 | 124,415 |
| 2022 | 308,613 | 301,447 | 211,304 | 90,143 | 131,924 |
| 2023 | 483,927 | 474,421 | 309,241 | 165,180 | 127,600 |
| 2024 | 780,884 | 758,994 | 350,103 | 408,891 | 188,400 |
| 2025 | 479,953 | 470,342 | 423,028 | 47,314 | 120,603 |