DHS announces updated information about this year's H-1B quota filing process
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Pasricha & Patel Takeaways:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just issued the final H-1B quota registration rule in which it will proceed to set up the previously announced online pre-registration of H-1B quota petition filing system. However, it will temporarily suspend this registration system until the year 2020 H-1B quota filing season, in order to allow the USCIS sufficient time to conduct user testing and make sure the registration system is working properly before implementing it in the year 2020 H-1B filing period.
In addition, the DHS will still go ahead and change the way it conducts the actual H-1B cap petition random lottery drawing system by reversing the order of the regular and U.S. advanced-degree quota lottery drawing. Specifically, USCIS will first conduct random lottery drawing of all the filed H-1B petition filings (which also includes applications filed by U.S. advanced degree holders). Then, there will be another round of random lottery drawing just for those applications filed by U.S. advanced degree holders. The goal is to increase the chances that U.S. advanced degree holders will be selected in the H-1B quota visa program.
This announcement confirms that for this year’s H-1B quota filings, those U.S. employers who may be interested in pursuing H-1B quota petition filings should continue to prepare for the H-1B quota filing process just as they have done in years past. This also means that DHS can be responsive to public feedback, which have reportedly been quite strong in urging DHS to delay the pre-registration system portion of the rule change, at least until the DHS has properly conducted the necessary user testing to ensure fairness and accuracy in the pre-registration process.
Should there be any further updates regarding this and any other aspects of the upcoming H-1B quota filing process, please do follow our website for any such updates. And should the readers have any further questions about the H-1B filing process, then we encourage you to contact our office for formal consultation so that we may assist you further.