Foreign workers fill a critical need in the U.S. labor market,
particularly in the professional and technological fields such as
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). To fill
this need, U.S. employers submit H-1B temporary worker visa status
registrations with the United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS), which is a lottery-based system where
registrations are selected from the congressionally allotted quota
of 85,000. For the fiscal year 2024-2025, the registration period
closed on March 22, 2024, and the selection of the 85,000
registrations occurred within six days. USCIS has yet to publish
the percentage of selections, but it is likely, as happens every
year, most employers' needs will not be met. For registrants
not selected for the first round of the H-1B cap, it is possible
that there may be additional rounds of selections as historically
seen in prior years. This occurs when USCIS has not received
sufficient H-1B applications
