USCIS Announces Timeline for the Fiscal Year 2020 H-1B Cap Registration Process

Link: https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-electronic-registration-process

Pasricha & Patel

USCIS has announced that the registration period for the upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 H-1B quota will start at 12 p.m. EST on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 and run through 12 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 25, 2021.

More precisely:

March 9, 2021 at 12 p.m. EST -> H-1B registration process begins;
March 25, 2021 at 12 p.m. EST -> H-1B registration period ends
March 31, 2021 -> USCIS intends to notify selected registrants in this year's H-1B lottery by this date
April 1, 2021 -> The first date that USCIS will begin accepting Fiscal Year 2022 H-1B cap petitions filed by U.S. employers

· Just like the filing process in 2020, potential H-1B cap filing petitioners or their legal representatives must utilize their my USCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process.

· They must pay a $10.00 non-refundable H-1B registration fee for each registration that is submitted on behalf of the H-1B beneficiary.

U.S. employers may decide to submit their own registrations and they can use a separate registrant account to do so.

The H-1B beneficiary is NOT allowed to register their own names in the registration system. Only the U.S. employer/petitioner or their legal representatives can register.

The petitioner may only submit one (1) registration per H-1B beneficiary and should the USCIS discover that multiple registrations were submitted for the same H-1B beneficiary by the same employer, all the registrations for that H-1B beneficiary will be deemed invalid.

Once registered, the USCIS will issue a confirmation number to each registration submitted during the H-1B registration period. This number is used to track registrations. It is not a case status number and it cannot be used to check the USCIS Case Status Online system later on.

The H-1B cap petition may only be filed by the petitioner whose registration for the specific H-1B beneficiary was selected in the H-1B registration process.

Finally, a reminder that USCIS has also announced earlier that it was delaying the H-1B selection process rule that would have changed the H-1B registration process into a wage based selection process. That rule is now delayed until December 31, 2021.

Therefore, the FY 2022 H-1B selection process will continue to be a random selection process.

As we approach the annual H-1B cap period, there may be news or developments that affect this process. We recommend readers to continue to check back with our site for any information updates.

Should you have any specific questions about the H-1B registration and filing processes, or if you have any other immigration-related questions, we suggest you contact our office to schedule formal consultation so we can discuss the matter further.