Bloombergreports that USCISis considering a proposal that will slightly improve the chances of US MasterDegree holders to win the H-1B lottery. If the proposed change had been in effect in April 2018 numbers, about2,700 more US Masters degree holders would have won the lottery, at the expenseof 2,700 regular H-1B cap winners (non-US Master’s degree). USCIS selects 85,000 H-1B cap lottery winnerseach April.
USCIShas signaled that it wants to reorder the way that it runs the lottery. Under the present lottery program, the USCISsegregates all of the H-1B beneficiaries who hold Masters degrees and runs a“Masters-only” lottery. It then takesall of the Masters lottery-losers, combines them with the regular H-1Bbeneficiaries and runs the regular-cap lottery.
Theproposal calls for the USCIS to reverse the process. The USCIS would run the regular lotteryfirst. The regular lottery would includeboth regular cap petitions and Master’s degree holders. Then, USCIS would take all Masters degreelosers and run a Masters lottery. Asshown in the 2018 example, the result would be that slightly more Mastersdegree holders would win the lottery at the expense of slightly fewernon-Masters cap beneficiaries.