The Chicago H-1B immigration attorneys at Zneimer & Zneimer PC are actively enrolling businesses in need of specialized workers for the H-1B lottery. It has come to our attention that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has decided to extend the initial registration timeframe for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap due to technical difficulties. The initial registration period, which commenced at noon Eastern on March 6, 2024, and was initially slated to conclude at noon Eastern on March 22, 2024, has been extended to conclude at noon Eastern on March 25, 2024. This extension is in response to a temporary system outage encountered by some registrants, providing them with additional time to address this complication. Throughout this extension, prospective petitioners, and their representatives where relevant, are required to utilize a USCIS online account to electronically register each beneficiary for the selection process and remit the requisite registration fee for each beneficiary. The USCIS still plans to inform the selected registrants by March 31, 2024.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation requires the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States. The H-1B visa program is subject to an annual cap or limit on the number of visas that can be issued each fiscal year, which currently stands at 65,000 for the regular cap, with an additional 20,000 visas available to graduates with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions of higher education.