Immigration
United States | USCIS announces H-1B cap selections; Petitions filing window runs April 1 – June 30
The United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made its final selections for the FY25 H-1B cap and has notified all sponsoring employers and legal representatives of selected beneficiaries through their respective USCIS Organizational Accounts. Petitions may be filed online starting April 1 or paper filed petitions may be mailed to the specified lockbox. USCIS must receive all petitions by June 30 to be considered. Petitions must adhere to the new fee schedule and use the Form I-129 dated 04/01/2024. USCIS will be hosting additional Tech Talks for stakeholders on April 2, April 4. April 16, and April 30.
H-1B Cap Selections
USCIS has made its final selections for the FY25 H-1B cap lottery. USCIS had begun notifying selected registrants on March 27, but has just confirmed that as of April 1, that all selections have been made. While sponsoring employers and legal representatives are now able to view the results through the online Organizational Account system, glitches in the USCIS system may prevent the full selections from being viewable. USCIS is actively investigating the issue.
USCIS has not yet announced the number of lottery registrations for FY25; however, when the new fee change rule was announced, the Department of Homeland Security had revised the USCIS volume forecast for H–1B registration workload to 424,400 registrations for FY25. The total number of FY24 eligible registrations was 758,994 (consisting of 408,891 eligible beneficiaries with multiple registrations and 350,103 eligible beneficiaries with no other eligible registrations). USCIS generally provides registration and selection percentage data in the summer; historical data for past registrations and selections is available on the USCIS website.
H-1B Cap Petitions
The 90-day H-1B cap petition filing window runs April 1 through June 30, 2024.
Petitions must be filed using the 04/01/2024 edition of the Form I-129 and adhere to the new fee schedule summarized in our New USCIS fee alert. Specifically, in addition to the I-129 filing fee, the ACWIA fee, and the Fraud fee, employers are subject to an Asylum Program fee of USD $600 (reduced to $300 for smaller employers and not applicable to nonprofit employers). H-1B cap petitions are eligible for premium processing, resulting in adjudication within 15 business (rather than calendar) days for a fee of $2,805.
Although USCIS has advised there will be no difference in the adjudication timeline for online versus paper filed petitions, USCIS offers a fee discount of $50 for petitions filed online. Paper petitions will no longer be accepted at the USCIS Service Centers, but instead must be mailed to the lockbox designated on the Form I-129 Direct Filing Addresses page on the USCIS website.
Due to the increased filing volumes USCIS typically experiences during the H-1B cap filing period, USCIS has cautioned that receipt notices might be delayed. USCIS has advised to only reach out to the USCIS Contact Center where more than 30 days have passed since confirmation of the petition delivery.
H-1B cap petitions may begin to be filed for beneficiaries selected in the lottery. With the newly launched Organizational Account system that offers online filing, this year petitions may be filed online or paper filings may be mailed to the appropriate USCIS lockbox using the new edition of the Form I-129 (04/01/2024 edition). USCIS has advised that receipt notices might be delayed due to the increase in filing volume during the H-1B cap petition filing period.
USCIS will be hosting additional Tech Talks discussing the online filing process on April 2, April 4. April 16, and April 30.
For information concerning the new Form I-129 and the increased filing fees, please refer to our New USCIS fee alert.
For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:
Manish Daftari
Partner
Further information on Vialto Partners can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com
For additional alerts, please visit: www.vialtopartners.com/regional-alerts
Contact us on the following address: me-immigration@vialto.com
Vialto Partners (“Vialto”) refers to wholly owned subsidiaries of CD&R Galaxy UK OpCo Limited as well as the other members of the Vialto Partners global network. The information contained in this document is for general guidance on matters of interest only. Vialto is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Vialto, its related entities, or the agents or employees thereof be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this document or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Simply follow our Vialto Alerts page on LinkedIn and posts will be displayed on your feed. To ensure you don’t miss one, once you’re on our LinkedIn page, click on the bell icon under the banner image to manage your notifications.
Further information on Vialto Partners can be found here: www.vialtopartners.com
Vialto Partners (“Vialto”) refers to wholly owned subsidiaries of CD&R Galaxy UK OpCo Limited as well as the other members of the Vialto Partners global network. The information contained in this document is for general guidance on matters of interest only. Vialto is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Vialto, its related entities, or the agents or employees thereof be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this document or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
© 2025 Vialto Partners. All rights reserved.