United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced its intent to strengthen the integrity of the H-1B registration process by introducing changes to the current electronic registration system. The final rule published on February 2, 2024, aims to ensure that regardless of how many H-1B registrations are submitted on behalf of a foreign national, the odds of that person being selected in the H-1B lottery will not increase. The new rule implements a “beneficiary-centered selection process for H-1B registrations”, which means that instead of selecting by registration, which has been the norm since 2020, USCIS will select registrations by the unique beneficiary.
US employers seeking to file an H-1B registration for foreign nationals will continue to submit separate electronic registrations for each individual cap-subject candidate they seek to sponsor, and more than one entity can submit a registration for an individual. To ensure that “each unique beneficiary who has a registration submitted on their behalf will be entered into the selection process once, regardless of how many registrations are submitted on their behalf” at the time of registration, USCIS will require registrants provide a foreign national’s valid passport information or valid travel document for each individual beneficiary. Each beneficiary may only be registered under one passport or travel document, which validates the “beneficiary-centric” process. Additionally, the travel document or passport provided must be the one that the foreign national intends to use to enter the US if they are issued an H-1B visa. Once an individual beneficiary is selected in the lottery, the registrant or registrants, if multiple registrations were submitted, will be notified. Each of the registrants will be able to file an H-1B petition on behalf of the beneficiary during the filing period.
In addition to the beneficiary-centered approach, the final rule, which is set to take effect within thirty days of the February 2nd publication USCIS, also “codifies USCIS’ ability to deny or revoke H-1B petitions where the underlying registration contained a false attestation or was otherwise invalid. Also under the new rule, USCIS may deny or revoke the approval of an H-1B petition if it determines that the fee associated with the registration is declined, not reconciled, disputed, or otherwise invalid after submission.” Furthermore, the final rule provides options with regards to the requested start date of the petition. It will no longer be necessary to request an October 1 start date for those filing after the first round of lottery selection, petitioners may now request any start date of the corresponding fiscal year, however this date cannot be more than six months after the filing date of the petition.
These modifications aiming to modernize the H-1B program are being announced in unison with the January 31, 2024 final rule adjusting benefit request fees set to begin on April 1, 2024. Luckily, since the FY 2025 H-1B cap registration period ends at noon EST on March 22, 2024, registration fees will remain at $10, a significant fee increase to $215 will be applied to FY2026 registrations. To help the public with the new H-1B Electronic Registration Process, USCIS has shared a helpful video on their You Tube channel. as well as updated information on their website.