By: Angelita Chavez and Lihua Tan

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has performed a second lottery selection for H-1B cap-subject visas for fiscal year (FY) 2021. USCIS notified employers through registration selection notices on August 14, 2020 with the phrase “August 2020 Selection of Reserve Registration.” Employers will have through November 16, 2020 to file an H-1B petition for the beneficiary listed in the registration notice.

USCIS ran this second round selection because they did not receive enough H-1B cap petitions to meet the 85,000 quota for FY 2021 during the initial 90-day filing period.

The agency has not yet made an official announcement regarding this lottery selection. It is not yet clear how many petitions will be selected during this second lottery.

How to Know Whether Your Petition Has Been Selected

Employers will receive an email from USCIS if their registration is selected during this second round. Employers or their attorney will need to log on to the H-1B cap registration system to print out their case selection notice. The notice will contain information about their filing deadline, and USCIS filing location. This notice must be included in the complete H-1B cap petition submitted by the employer.

Conclusion

We are closely monitoring updates to the H-1B visa lottery selection process and will provide them as soon as they are available. For more information, please contact your trusted Chugh, LLP attorney.