On March 27, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received enough H-1B registrations during the initial registration period of March 1-17, 2023, to reach the 85,000 numerical cap for all new cap-subject H-1's for fiscal year 2024 (which starts October 1, 2023). Employers who have received notices of selected registrations may now prepare and file H-1B petitions to seek approval of actual H-1B temporary employment authorization.

Employers must file the full I-129 H-1B petition within the filing period listed on their H-1B Lottery Selection Notice. The filing period for H-1B beneficiaries selected in the lottery is usually at least 90 days. The first possible day of H-1B employment for successful lottery registrations is October 1, 2023.

Last year, more than 280,000 registrations were received for the total of 85,000 new quota-subject H-1B's available for fiscal year 2023. USCIS has not yet revealed the total number of registrations for this year's H-1B Lottery.

Read from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, FY 2024 H-1B Cap Season Updates

On March 13, 2023, the New York Times reported that many undocumented migrants have voluntarily departed the United States to return to their home countries in recent years. Some had lived in the U.S. for 30 years or more. For example, from 2010 to 2020, undocumented migrants from Mexico living in the U.S. declined from 6.6 million to 4.4 million.

Read from The New York Times, Many Undocumented Immigrants are Departing After Decades in the U.S.

At the same time that the U.S. continues to restrict highly skilled professionals seeking to live and work in the U.S., many other developed countries are making it easier for highly skilled workers to obtain temporary work visas and permanent residence. For example, Canada (unlike the U.S.) has no quota limiting the number of work visas and "green cards" for the highly skilled (such as the U.S. H-1B quota and the EB-2 and EB-3 "Green Card" quotas). Canadian options for highly skilled work are faster and more efficient than the U.S. system.

Read from Business Insider, America needs immigration reform, or it risks losing an entire generation of tech workers to countries like Canada, the UK, and Japan

Later this year, the U.S. State Department plans to start a pilot program permitting H-1 and L-1 temporary workers to apply inside the U.S. to renew their temporary work visas. Such "Domestic Visa Renewals" could save time and money for H-1 and L-1 employers and their workers by creating a new option that could avoid the long backlogs to get a visa appointment at a U.S. consulate. In recent years, these backlogs have increased from weeks to months.

Read from Nikkei Asia, U.S. plans to resume domestic visa renewals for IT workers

Read from Borene Law Firm, FAQ's about Consular Processing for Nonimmigrant Visas

Read from Borene Law Firm, FAQ's about H-1 Work Visas

Scott Borene named 2022

in Immigration Law, Minneapolis by

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Tip of the Month

If you are an employer who missed out on this year's H-1 quota, there are still many other work visa options to legally "fill the gap" until October 1, 2024 when the new FY 2025 H-1 quota reopens.

Other work visa options include TN, E-3, L-1, O-1, E-2, F-1, J-1, J-2, L-2, Q-1, CPT or OPT work permission and many more.

For more details about other work visa options, read our FAQ's.