H-1B Visa for IT Professionals: Process, Timeline, and Requirements

What is this page about?

A guide to the H-1B visa for IT professionals, explaining the specialty-occupation requirement and walking the annual process step by step: March employer registration, the late-March lottery, the labor condition application, the I-129 petition, and USCIS adjudication. It reports the FY2025 odds (about 470,000 registrations for 85,000 slots, roughly a 26% selection rate, improved by the advanced-degree exemption), who pays which costs, IT-specific issues like third-party placement, certifications that strengthen a petition, maintaining status, and the path to permanent residency.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Ilayda Nil Kara

   7 flagged issues verified: a stale/incorrect FY2025 H-1B registration figure (442,000 registrations, 19% selection rate, repeated 3 times) was checked against actual USCIS data and corrected to the real published figures (~470,000 registrations, ~26% selection rate); a fee-timeline conflation (the $215 registration fee increase applies to the FY2026 cycle, misstated as 'in FY2025') was corrected; quotes attributed to Cyrus Mehta and Ragini Shah (real immigration attorneys) had no locatable source and were de-attributed; an uncited RFE rate/response-window claim (30-40%, 60-87 days -- a non-standard range) was softened to the standard ~60-90 day framing; a David Bier/Cato Institute claim with unsourced precise figures (400,000, 50 years) was softened while keeping the real underlying backlog trend; an uncited precise EB-2 priority-date range (2012-2013) was softened with guidance to check the current Visa Bulletin.

   What the page claimed

   In fiscal year 2025, USCIS received 442,000 registrations for 85,000 available slots, making the selection rate approximately 19 percent. (repeated 3x) | "The H-1B program is designed for specialty occupations... A software engineer at Google designing distributed systems has a cleaner case..." - Cyrus Mehta, founding partner of Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners PLLC | Ragini Shah, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Suffolk University Law School, has noted that... | received by approximately 30-40 percent of H-1B petitions in recent years and requiring a response within 60-87 days. | David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, has published research showing that approximately 400,000 Indian-born H-1B holders... facing wait times exceeding 50 years... | As of 2025, the EB-2 priority date for India-born applicants is approximately 2012-2013... | a $215 registration fee per beneficiary (increased from $10 in FY2025)

   What was corrected

   In fiscal year 2025, USCIS received approximately 470,000 registrations for 85,000 available slots, making the selection rate approximately 26 percent. (corrected in all 3 occurrences to match real USCIS FY2025 published figures) | De-attributed quote to plain prose: "The H-1B program is designed for specialty occupations... A software engineer designing distributed systems at a large technology company has a cleaner case..." (removed Cyrus Mehta name/attribution, no locatable source) | De-attributed to plain prose: "IT consulting companies filing H-1B petitions for workers placed at client sites should prepare detailed documentation..." (removed Ragini Shah name/attribution, no locatable source) | "issued for a meaningful share of H-1B petitions in recent years and typically requiring a response within approximately 60-90 days." (removed unverified 30-40 percent figure and non-standard 60-87 day window, replaced with standard ~60-90 day framing) | "Research from immigration policy analysts has highlighted that a large number of Indian-born H-1B holders and their dependents are waiting in the employment-based green card queue, with some facing wait times that could span decades..." (kept the real backlog trend point, removed unverified precise figures/attribution to David Bier) | "EB-2 priority dates for India-born applicants move slowly and lag many years behind the current filing date; applicants should check the most recent Visa Bulletin..." (removed stale uncited specific years, replaced with guidance to check current Visa Bulletin) | "a $215 registration fee per beneficiary (increased from $10, effective for the FY2026 cycle)" (corrected timeline from FY2025 to FY2026)

   Why: Corrected stale/incorrect FY2025 H-1B registration and selection-rate figures (3 occurrences), fixed FY2025/FY2026 fee-timeline conflation, de-attributed two unverifiable quotes (Cyrus Mehta, Ragini Shah), softened an uncited RFE rate/response-window claim to standard framing, softened a David Bier/Cato Institute claim with unsourced precise figures while keeping the real backlog trend, and softened an uncited EB-2 priority-date range in favor of pointing readers to the current Visa Bulletin.

   View the full record →

Who checked this page?

1 contributor has checked "H-1B Visa for IT Professionals: Process, Timeline, and Requirements" on Pass4Sure. Each name below links to that person's public CitePep profile, where every contribution they have made is listed with the exact change they proposed.