The H-1B lottery is a computerized selection process used by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to select petitions for H-1B visas from the pool of eligible petitions received during the filing season.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. The lottery is held annually, and the number of visas available is capped at 65,000. In 2023, USCIS received over 400,000 H-1B petitions, but only 65,000 were selected in the lottery. The results of the 2025 H-1B lottery are expected to be announced in March 2025.