Click here for another part Advice for answering immigration-related questions about working for tech companies Dear Sophie column
“Your question is essential to the dissemination of knowledge that enables people around the world to pursue their dreams across borders,” says Sophie Alcorn, an immigration attorney in Silicon Valley. “For HR professionals, founders, or anyone looking for a job in Silicon Valley, I’d like to answer your questions in my next column.”
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Dear Sophie
How many employers will be signing up for the H-1B lottery this year?
Is it still possible to include additional candidates by next week’s deadline?
— fast-paced founder
dear fast-paced,
The H-1B season is in full swing! The registration window for this year’s annual H-1B lottery is now open at USCIS.
If you are considering including (additional) candidates and the number of immigration attorneys is already full, the USCIS step-by-step instructions allow companies to submit last-minute registrations on their own.
Image credit: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in new window)
Employers should note that they will not be able to submit new H-1B registrations after the registration portal closes next Friday, March 17th at 12:00 pm ET.
How many people do you want to register? nobody knows Mass layoffs in the tech industry mean more people looking for jobs. Meanwhile, there are still plenty of tech job vacancies that employers want to sponsor immigrant candidates. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of her F-1 college graduates each year go for her regular OPT and STEM OPT in the hopes that their employers will sponsor them in the lottery.
The 2023 Immigration Trends Report actually predicts what employers will file a little more H-1B registrations are up from 2022 when there were over 483,000 records.
The lottery has 85,000 new H-1B openings each year, including a subset of 20,000 reserved for individuals with advanced degrees from U.S. colleges.
