The H-1B cap lottery process has been conducted and completed for this fiscal year. Given the new H-1B regulation and registration process that was applied to this years’ lottery, no one really knew what to expect as far as what the odds of winning would be and how the process would go. This week USCIS finally released the lottery data which tells us:

• 114,017 beneficiaries were selected in the initial lottery this year.
• There was a decrease in the total number of registrations submitted as compared to last year, including a decrease in the number of beneficiaries with multiple registrations submitted on their behalf.
• This year there were ~442,000 beneficiaries who applied for the H-1B lottery whereas last year the number was ~446,000. However, the number of eligible registrations was down by 38.6% this year as compared to last year.
• Beneficiaries with multiple H-1B registrations submitted on their behalf decreased significantly – this year there were ~47,000 eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple registrations compared to more than 408,000 last year. That’s an 88% decrease!

This data tells us that while USCIS’s new regulations have improved the H-1B lottery process and made the system more fair, the H-1B system still falls short of offering the number of temporary nonimmigrant work visas that are needed by U.S. employers to cover demand.