[athms]

You are confused.

There is lottery for the Diversity Visa program, but that is not the only path to permanent residency and there is no cap on the number of applications for permanent residency.

The H1-B has always used a lottery when there are more applications than visas. There is a cap on both visas granted and applications. There are three caps: Regular, C/S (treaty obligations with Chile and Singapore), and US Master's (US master's degrees or higher). The USCIS will publish a memo when enough applications are received, closing the application season (normally six months) until next year.

Applicants with a US master's degree (or higher) have two chances to receive an H1-B visa. A lottery is held to award the visas available to master's degree holders, and those not selected are entered in the regular lottery.