With the second round of the H-1B cap lottery just completed, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has now released statistics for this year’s H-1B cap selections as well as statistics on H-1B alternatives such as O-1A and EB-2 NIW cases.
USCIS reported that the total number of unique H-1B beneficiaries this year for fiscal year (FY) 2025 was approximately 442,000. USCIS selected 114,017 beneficiaries, resulting in 120,603 selected registrations in the initial selection, and an additional 13,607 beneficiaries in the second lottery, resulting in 14,534 selected registrations, for an overall total of 135,137 (about 30%) selected registrations for FY 2025. Trends on H-1B alternatives show an upward trend in filings and favorable approval rates, particularly for jobs in STEM fields.
Background
The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent. Currently there is an annual numerical limit of 65,000 visas each fiscal year (known as the “Regular cap”). There are an additional 20,000 H-1B visas available for beneficiaries with a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution of higher education (known as the “Master’s cap”). The Regular cap is further reduced by carve-outs for the H-1B1 visa for nationals of Chile and Singapore under the provisions of free trade agreements between the U.S. and each country, leaving the actual number of Regular cap H-1B visas that are available at 58,200.
Each year, USCIS selects more registrations than there are visa numbers available based on its projections of how many selected employers will file petitions and receive USCIS approval.
The current limit on H-1B visas was set in 1990 when the H-1B category was created by Congress. The American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA) and the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (AC21) made significant changes to policy and procedures for the H-1B classification, including providing temporary increases to the numerical limits. Under ACWIA, the number of available H-1B visas increased to 115,000 in FY 1999 and 2000. AC21 further increased the number of available visas to 195,000 for FY 2001, FY 2002, and FY 2003. In FY 2004, the H-1B cap reverted to 65,000 visas per fiscal year and remains at that level. Except for the special allocation of visas for the Master’s cap, established in 2006, there have been no increases to the number of H-1B visas that are available each year since the sunset of the ACWIA and AC21 provisions.
Key Takeaways from this H-1B Cap Season
The number of eligible registrations dropped by a noteworthy 38.6%, a welcome correction under the new beneficiary-centric selection process. Under the new procedures implemented by the Improving the H-1B Registration Selection Process and Program Integrity rule, now each unique beneficiary is entered into the selection process once, regardless of how many registrations have been submitted on their behalf. This measure was enacted as an attempt to combat fraud in the process that was seen in prior years when multiple employers would jointly file registrations for the same beneficiary to gain an unfair advantage in selection rates. Overall, there was an average of 1.06 registrations per beneficiary in FY 2025 as compared to 1.70 for FY 2024.
The number of unique employers submitting registrations in FY 2025 (approximately 52,700) was comparable to the number in FY 2024 (approximately 52,000). The number of unique beneficiaries in FY 2025 (approximately 442,000) was slightly lower than the number in FY 2024 (approximately 446,000).
Good News on H-1B Visa Alternatives
Due to the limited numbers of H-1B visas available, U.S. employers are driven to leverage alternatives to the H-1B classification in order to retain talent in their workforce.
USCIS has also released statistics on some of the widely-used alternatives to the H-1B visa category, including the O-1A visa for individuals with extraordinary ability and the National Interest Waiver (NIW) immigrant visa petition, which provides a fast track to U.S. permanent residence by bypassing the PERM labor certification process. Generally, the results are positive:
- O-1A filings have doubled since 2018, with an overall approval rate at 92% for FY 2023.
- National Interest Waiver (NIW) immigrant visa petition filings have quadrupled since 2018, and represented 43% of all I-140 EB-2 filings in FY 2023. The approval rate for NIW cases was at 79% in FY 2023.
The USCIS release further analyzes statistics for these petition types filed on behalf of individuals working in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields. Following on policy guidance issued by USCIS in January 2022 that set forth standards for O-1 and NIW adjudications for STEM workers and emphasized the prioritization of STEM NIW beneficiaries, or O-1, NIW there has been a general improvement in approval rates across both categories.
- STEM O-1A approvals have doubled since 2018. The approval rate has increased by approximately 78% since FY 2021, although there was a slight decrease in the number of approvals from FY 2022 to FY 2023.
- STEM NIW filings have tripled since 2018 and there was a marked increase from 13,550 cases receipted in FY 2022 to 20,950 cases receipted in FY 2023. The USCIS data shows that the vast majority of these cases filed in FY 2022 and FY 2023 were approved.
What Employers Need to Know
The H-1B program, which is based on numerical limits set over 30 years ago, still remains terribly short of meeting the needs of the U.S. economy in the global competition for talent, particularly in STEM fields. While it is welcoming to see positive trends in O-1A extraordinary ability petitions and NIW immigrant visa petitions, these classifications are only available to select foreign nationals who have achieved a high level of acclaim in their field of endeavor or are working in a limited number of industries.
For more information, please contact your designated Gibney representative or email info@gibney.com.
