USCIS to conduct second-round selection for H-1B visa lottery for FY 2024, with 20,000-25,000 petitioners likely to be selected. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) earlier this week confirmed that they will be conducting a second-round selection for the H-1B visa lottery for the fiscal year 2024. As per Day 1 CPT Universities analysis, the lottery is most likely to be conducted within next few days. Also, 20,000-25,000 H1B petitioners are likely to be selected through the lottery process. Meanwhile, an immigration expert Rajiv S. Khanna cited that this time around, selection would be about 6%. USCIS is authorised to grant 85,000 cap-subject H-1B visas each year. In March 2023, USCIS conducted the initial random selection process on properly submitted electronic registrations for the FY 2024 H-1B cap. That way, only around 70% of the authorised quota had been issued, leaving a significant number of available visas, as per Day 1 CPT Universities. Rajiv S. Khanna, managing attorney at Immigration.com, the Law Offices of Rajiv S. Khanna, PC, said that the selection is already in the process, they might be wrapped up beginning this week. “My colleagues are suggesting that the selection in this round would be 6%. I am not sure about the figures. But that is probably the internal assessment" To select these registrations, the USCIS will use a random selection process from the previously submitted electronic entries. ‘Second round lottery was expected’ Earlier this year, Khanna had forecasted that there would be a second round of H1B visa lottery. Speaking to Mint, Khanna had said, The IT industry has faced layoffs, and some employers are hesitant to commit to hiring foreign workers. This uncertainty has led to delays in the filing of H1B visa applications, with some employers waited to see how the market evolves before submitting their applications. How the second round of the lottery is decided? The government statistically computes the number of applicants that would be needed to fulfill the visa allotment that they have and typically selects more applicants than the available number of visas to account for those who do not end up filing for various reasons. “If the computations, which are only statistical projections, are incorrect and there are leftover visas, a second round of the lottery may be held to allocate the remaining visas, Khanna had said.