Navigating the H-1B Cap Lottery and Other Immigration Considerations for Employers

Join immigration attorney Nina Pelc-Faszcza for an overview of important immigration-related processes, procedures, and considerations for employers that wish to recruit and/or retain foreign-born talent for professional positions, including a discussion of the upcoming annual H-1B cap lottery in March 2025.

Navigating the U.S. immigration system can be challenging, and many employers desire avoid it altogether because of its complexities and limitations. However, employers can benefit greatly from hiring foreign-born talent, especially for roles that are difficult to fill with American workers. During this session, we will demystify the employment-based immigration system by discussing some of the basics of employing and sponsoring foreign national workers for professional positions, delving into key considerations for employers.

In particular, this session will spend some time on the H-1B cap lottery, the registration for which will be held in March 2025. H-1B status is the primary mechanism in the U.S. by which professional employees obtain work authorization, but (with certain exceptions) federal law limits the number of individuals who are eligible to apply for H-1B status for the first time each year, including, for example, recent college graduates.  We will dig into how the H-1B lottery works and discuss key topics of interest, including how the lottery system might impact an employer’s ability to employ foreign national workers and ways to potentially circumvent the cap to hire foreign-born talent despite these numerical limits.  We will also discuss potential alternatives to H-1B status for those who are not chosen in the H-1B cap lottery.

This session will also cover a brief overview of sponsoring foreign national employees for permanent residence (a green card).  We will cover the different pathways that an individual and/or employer can choose for employment-based green card sponsorship and discuss important considerations for employers, including how long the process takes for the different pathways and how that might impact which option to choose.