US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that H-1B cap-subject petitions for fiscal year (FY) 2021, including advanced degree cases, may now be filed with USCIS as of April 1, 2020, if based on a valid selected registration. Petitioners are only eligible to file a FY 2021 H-1B cap-subject petition if they electronically registered the beneficiary in the H-1B registration process and USCIS selected the registration for the beneficiary in the random lottery.

The H-1B cap-subject petition must be properly filed within the period indicated on the relevant registration selection notice. The period for filing the H-1B cap-subject petition will be at least ninety days. Since online filing is not available for H-1B petitions, petitioners must file H-1B petitions by paper and should include a printed copy of the applicable registration selection notice along with the supporting evidence and documents establishing eligibility for the H-1B.

According to USCIS, the H-1B electronic registration process was well-received by users, who provided a high satisfaction score with the system. The agency indicated that nearly 275,000 unique registrations were submitted during the initial registration period and roughly forty-six percent of all registrations were for prospective beneficiaries with US advanced degrees. More than 40,000 registration accounts were created in total.

“The new H-1B electronic registration system has been an overall success,” Joseph Edlow, USCIS Deputy Director for Policy, said in a statement. “The positive feedback received by users of the H-1B registration system, the limited amount of technical issues experienced during the registration period, and the ability to immediately respond to questions from registrants was the result of a comprehensive effort developed over the course of more than a year. This new registration system is one of many ways USCIS is improving the H-1B program.”