U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Thursday it would hold a second random lottery for H-1B temporary work visas to meet the annual cap for Fiscal Year 2024.
An initial lottery was held in March of this year, but the agency said it had “recently determined” that it would need to select more H-1B applicants to reach next year’s cap. It didn’t specify when the lottery would take place.
The H-1B program, especially popular in the tech and engineering fields, has an annual cap of 85,000 visas. H-1B applications submitted for 2024 increased by 61%, with 780,884 applications.
The second lottery will pull from previously submitted applications.
For more, check out Boundless’ in-depth guide on the H-1B program!