Pricey Sophie: Final-minute H-1Bs, O-1A & EB-1A extraordinary credential prep


Right here’s one other version of “Pricey Sophie,” the recommendation column that solutions immigration-related questions on working at know-how firms.
“Your questions are very important to the unfold of data that enables folks all around the world to rise above borders and pursue their desires,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration legal professional. “Whether or not you’re in folks ops, a founder or looking for a job in Silicon Valley, I’d like to reply your questions in my subsequent column.”
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Pricey Sophie,
How many individuals are employers going to register within the H-1B lottery this 12 months? Will there be fewer due to all the layoffs?
Is it nonetheless attainable to incorporate extra candidates earlier than the deadline subsequent week?
— Quick-paced Founder
Pricey Quick-paced,
We’re within the coronary heart of H-1B season! The registration window for this 12 months’s annual H-1B lottery is presently open with USCIS.
If you’re pondering of together with any (extra) candidates and your immigration counsel has already reached capability, your organization could submit any last-minute registrations by itself by following USCIS’s step-by-step directions.

Picture Credit: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a brand new window)
Employers have to be aware that no new H-1B registrations could be submitted after the registration portal closes at 12 p.m. ET on March seventeenth, which is the Friday of subsequent week.
How many individuals will probably be registered? No one is aware of. The mass layoffs in tech imply that there are a lot of folks looking for jobs. However, there are nonetheless many, many job openings in tech that employers are prepared to sponsor immigrant candidates for. Plus, tons of of hundreds of F-1 college graduates work on common OPT and STEM OPT yearly with the hope that their employers will sponsor them within the lottery.
The 2023 Immigration Traits Report really predicts that employers will submit barely extra H-1B registrations than they did in 2022, which noticed a report of over 483,000.
The lottery has 85,000 openings for brand spanking new H-1Bs yearly, together with a subset of 20,000 reserved for people with superior levels from U.S. schools and universities.