First Time Ever: A 2nd Chance To Crack H-1B Lottery

Probably for the first time ever, H-1B applicants who were not selected by the lottery process in April have a second chance to be selected. This will be useful for students who are already in America and who were to transition to an H-1B visa, say, immigration experts. Immigration attorneys said that the status of several pending applications has suddenly changed to 'selected'.

H-1B has an annual cap of 85,000. But the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) typically receive far more applications and so it conducts a lottery to determine who gets the visa. This year, there were 2.8 lakh registrations and approximately 1.9 lakh were Indian beneficiaries. Once the lottery selects 85,000 applications, sponsoring employers are required to file detailed visa applications for those selected. This year due to COVID-19 there was the slowdown in the economy and travel bans announced by president Trump for new H-1B visas, interest waned and companies did not follow through with the detailed filings.

This is very good news for those in the US who are eligible to change the status to H-1B, this still does not change the fact that the H-1B visa ban put in place by President Trump will continue to pose a challenge to employers and employees whose skills are required in the US but who do not meet the narrow criteria for travel ban exemptions in 'national interest'.