USCIS Announces Updates for the Fiscal Year 2025 H-1B Cap Registration Process

On April 1, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that enough electronic registrations were received during the initial registration period to reach the numerical allotments (H-1B cap) for the fiscal year (FY) 2025.

USCIS selected a total of 114,017 beneficiaries, resulting in 120,603 selected registrations in the initial selection period for the H-1B cap. During this registration period for FY 2025 H-1B cap, USCIS did notice a considerable decrease in the total number of registrations in comparison to FY 2024:

• The number of unique beneficiaries for the FY 2025 was roughly the same to the number of beneficiaries for FY 2024, approximately 442,000 and 446,000 respectively.
• The number of unique employers for the FY 2025 was also comparable to the number last year for FY 2024, approximately 52,700 and 52,000 respectively.
• However, the number of eligible registrations saw a dramatic decrease for FY 2025 (470,342 registrations) in comparison with FY 2024 (758,994 registrations). This equates to a 38.6% reduction.

Based on numbers from the FY 2023 and FY 2024 cap seasons, USCIS explained that it has undertaken various fraud investigations, denied and revoked petitions accordingly, and continues to process cases to ensure fairness. The reduced filing rate for the FY 2025 are believed to be indicative of these investigations as well as the beneficiary-centric selection process that was published by USCIS under the final rule. According to USCIS, it believes that this demonstrates that the implemented integrity measures have been effective and provide positive outcomes for those seeking H-1B worker status.

The H-1B program is critical to both the nation’s immigration system and economy. Understanding the efficacy of this program and the various integrity measures implemented by USCIS is critical in ensuring fairness for all those who wish to participate in the H-1B program. With additional updates subject to be published, we encourage readers to check our website regularly for updates on this and all topics related to immigration law.