Statutes of Liberty: H-1B season was a disappointment

This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Doran Shemin, Esq., and Laura Lorenzo, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.

Although the spring season has finally arrived and is beyond pleasant, H-1B lottery season was not so pleasant this year.

As a refresher, there are 85,000 H-1B visas available per year for workers in specialty occupations.  A couple of years ago, DHS implemented a new lottery system with a much lower price to apply. Now, instead of submitted packets of hundreds of pages of paper, the employer must only purchase a $10.00 ticket online for each employee they would like to receive an H-1B visa. Then, if that ticket is selected, the employer can move on to filing the entire petition. Sounds better, right?

Well, sort of. Previously, we estimated that a lottery ticket had a 1/3 chance of being selected in the lottery. But this year, the chances of success seemed to decrease significantly. For example, for fiscal year 2022, DHS received 308,613 tickets.  For fiscal year 2023, DHS received 483,927 registrations.  

These numbers clearly indicate that there is a high demand for skilled labor via the H-1B program, but the chances of a company’s ideal candidate being selected during the lottery have diminished over time. As an anecdote, we represent a number of smaller companies and submitted a total of eight tickets.  Not a single one was selected. Now, our corporate clients have to figure out other ways to hopefully keep their employees.

Not only is the lottery bad for employers who need to keep key employees, but it’s bad for the employees themselves. Some have no other option to stay in the United States, despite many receiving their education and working the first year or two of their careers in the United States. Not getting selected in the lottery means that the employee has to potentially pick up the life she has created and move out of the country.

As the years go on, we will see if this trend continues. If so, it will likely result in smaller employers having a difficult time bringing on employees via the H-1B program since large companies will have the need, and capacity, to submit hundreds of tickets every year.

As always, we’re happy to answer questions and comments!

This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Doran Shemin, Esq., and Laura Lorenzo, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.