United States Citizenship and Immigration Services held a lottery on April 11.

Highlights H-1B applications received by United States down 16% year-on-year

199,000 H-1B applications this year, as against 236,000 last year

US agency had opened H-1B application window on April 3 this year

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS received 199,000 H-1B applications this year, down 16 per cent from 236,000 received last year. The agency had opened the H-1B application window on April 3, including petitions filed for the advanced degree exemption. The US agency said that on April 11, it used a computer-generated random selection process, or lottery, to select enough petitions to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and the 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions with their filing fees, unless the petition is found to be a duplicate filing, it said.



H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows American businesses to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Silicon Valley companies have relied on it to hire tens of thousands of skilled employees each year.



USCIS had earlier issued a memorandum saying that being an entry-level computer programmer would no longer qualify as a specialist profession, which is a must for the issuance of an H-1B work visa. This move by the US agency could have far-reaching implications, impacting both fresh visa applications and renewals, according to analysts.





The drop in number of H-1B applications comes amid increased uncertainty over the visa programme. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today directing federal agencies to recommend changes to a temporary visa programme used to bring foreign workers to the United States to fill high-skilled jobs.Two senior Trump administration officials who briefed reporters at the White House said President Trump will also use the "buy American and hire American" order to seek changes in government procurement practices to increase the purchase of American products in federal contracts. (With agency inputs)