A New Selection Process for H-1B Cap Cases will Increase the Probability of Selection
On March 2, 2024, a new rule will go into effect regarding the H-1B cap lottery and will apply to this year’s lottery. Instead of selecting cases by registration, USCIS will select registrations by the unique beneficiary. Each unique beneficiary who has a registration submitted on their behalf will be entered into the selection process once, regardless of how many registrations are submitted on their behalf.
Under the new system, multiple unrelated companies can file for a beneficiary. However, the beneficiary will be selected by the lottery only once. If selected, the beneficiary can then select which one of the companies that submitted the registration will submit the H-1B cap lottery petition.
The added benefit to this system should be fewer registrations for the lottery and a higher probability of selection. A beneficiary will no longer want to find additional companies to register in the lottery to increase the probability of selection.
This rule will reduce the potential for gaming the process to increase chances for selection and help ensure that each beneficiary has the same chance of being selected, regardless of how many registrations are submitted on their behalf. As many of you are aware, there was a large number of beneficiaries that gamed the system by applying with multiple companies either that were related or unrelated. One beneficiary registered in the lottery with 83 companies as sponsors. There were over 9,000 beneficiaries that registered with five or more companies. There were a large number of companies that filed over 500 cases with about 200 selected but filed less than 10 H-1B cases. This gaming of the system by beneficiaries and companies was hurting legitimate businesses and candidates.
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