This year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept lottery registrations from noon Eastern on March 1 through noon Eastern on March 17 for H-1B visas, which allow foreign nationals to enter the United States to perform temporary work in a “specialty occupation” in numerous industries, such as technology, health care, professional services, education, and more. H-1B employees can work initially for three years, can extend H-1B status up to six years, and can often be sponsored by employers for legal permanent residence in the future.
Many employers are required to register their H-1B-hopeful employees in the annual lottery because the demand for H-1B visas exceeds the availability. In past years, a foreign employee without a U.S. master’s degree had approximately a one-in-four chance of being selected for one of the 65,000 H-1B visas available under the “regular cap,” and an employee with a U.S. master’s degree or higher had approximately a one-in-three chance of being selected for one of the additional 20,000 visas available under the “master’s cap.”
