2020 H1B Lottery FAQs

Of course! Check out this page for a complete description of our 2020 H1B registration package.

Probably! While we will prioritize filings for which we handled the registration, we will accept cases for which we did not handle the registration on a rolling basis as long as we have capacity. Get in touch to see what our current avaiability is.

Yes. Employees cannot enter themselves into the lottery. You must have a prosepctive employer willing make a lottery entry on your behalf.

Maybe. A single company can make only one entry per employee, but there is no limit to the number of different companies that can enter a single employee. An employee with offers from five different companies could be entered five times–once per potential employer. Be careful in cases where there is a close relationship between two different employers, however. If USCIS determines the two companies are so closely related that there is no real difference in the different jobs offered, both applications for that employee will be canceled.

As many as you want. There is no limit to the number of employees an employer can enter into the lottery.

You can only enter each employee once, though. If you try to enter a single employee more than once, all of your entries for that employee will be canceled. Multiple employers can enter a single employee, however. See the next question for details.

OPT hoders who have a full H1B petition filed for them before the expiration of their EAD will have their work authorization automatically extended until October 1. (If your H1B application is denied, this extension ends immediately.)

It’s important to note that the extension is activated only when the full application is filed, not when the preliminary registration is filed. Because full H1B applications can’t be filed before April 1, if your OPT expires prior to April 1, you will not be able to get the cap-gap extension. If your OPT expires in early April, you may need to start preparing your full application before you know if you’ve been selected or not in order to be ready to file in time to get the extension.

Check out this page for a summary of what the process looks like this year. The barriers to entry this year are dramatically lower. In past years, a company had to prepare and file a full application just to enter an employee in the lottery. The time and expense required to do this limited the number of entries. We will likely see a dramatically higher number of entries this year due to the fact that the process is so much cheaper and simpler. It’s great that it’s so much easier to enter, but the downside is that the odds of getting selected will probably be significantly lower.

The other change is the order of the regular and “master’s cap” lotteries. Of the 85,000 H1B slots available every year, 20,000 are reserved for people with advanced degrees from US universities. This 20,000 is referred to as the “master’s cap.” In the past, USCIS would create a pool of all entrants holding advanced degrees from US institutions, select enough to fill the 20,000 spots, and then run the general lottery. The general lottery would include all of the applications entered in the master’s cap but not selected, as well as all of the entries that did not qualify for the master’s cap. This year, in order to increase the percentage of slots going to applicants with advanced degrees, USCIS is reversing the order of these two lotteries. The general lottery including all applicants will first be run, then all unselected applicants who qualify will be entered into the master’s cap lottery.

No. Winning the lottery just means USCIS will allow you to submit an application. Once you submit the application, they will then decide to approve or deny it based on its merits.