On March 31, 2025, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received enough initial electronic registrations for unique individuals for the fiscal year 2026 (“FY26”) H-1B cap, as well as the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap) and have randomly selected enough properly submitted registrations. The Service has completed the notifications to all employers who submitted online registrations. Those with selected registrations may begin filing H-1B cap subject petitions for FY2026 as of April 1, 2025 and the period to file their petition with the service will be at least 90 days. Petitions may be filed either on paper at the correct filing location or online at my.uscis.gov within the filing period that is indicated on the selection notice.
Read moreHere we are, ready to kick off the fiscal year 2026 (“FY26”) H-1B cap. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced the initial registration period for the FY26 H-1B cap will begin at 12pm Eastern on March 7, 2025, and run through 12pm Eastern on March 24, 2025. During this registration period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their H-1B registrations using online accounts and pay the required fee for each registration submitted on behalf of individual beneficiaries. The Service is maintaining its beneficiary-centric selection process launched last year for FY2025.
Read moreIn April this year, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received sufficient electronic registrations for unique individuals for the fiscal year 2025 (“FY2025”) cap, including the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap). USCIS randomly selected properly submitted registrations and notified all employers.
Those with selected registrations were able to begin filing H-1B cap subject petitions for FY2025 as of April 1, 2024. The deadline for filing H-1B cap subject petitions online, based on a valid registration selection notice, was June 30, 2024, and paper-based H-1B cap subject petitions had to be received at a USCIS Lockbox Facility by July 1, 2024 (since June 30 was a Sunday).
Read moreUnited 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.
Read moreFollowing up on its March 27, 2023 announcement that it had received enough initial registrations for the Fiscal Year 2024 (“FY24”) H-1B Cap, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has released data about the number of registrations received for the visa lottery. USCIS received a record breaking 780,884 H-1B registrations during the three week registration period. Of these over 780 thousand registrations, USCIS determined 758,994 were eligible registrations. This figure excludes duplicate registrations, those with failed payments, and those that were deleted by prospective employers prior to the closing of the registration period. The number of registrations for FY24 mark a sixty-one percent increase from 474,421 eligible registrations received for FY23. This significant increase has raised “serious concerns” and USCIS has begun to investigate potential employers who may have worked together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary to increase their chance of being selected in the H-1B lottery.
Read moreOn March 27, 2023, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they had received enough initial electronic registrations for the fiscal year 2024 (“FY24”) H-1B cap, including the advanced degree exemption (master’s cap). Consequently, the Service has notified all prospective petitioners whose registrations were randomly selected that they are eligible to file cap-subject H-1B petitions for the named beneficiary in the selected registration.
Read moreAs employers began to register for the Fiscal Year 2024 H-1B cap on March 1, 2023, it is reported that the demand by US employers for high-skilled foreign workers on temporary work visas is expected to reach a new high for the third year in a row. At the same time eligible applicants register for the visa lottery, some current H-1B visa holders in the IT industry are faced with the prospect of having to leave the homes they have created in the US after losing their jobs.
Read moreUS Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) just announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (“FY”) 2024 H-1B cap will begin at 12pm ET on March 1, 2023, and run through 12pm ET on March 17, 2023. During this registration period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to submit their H-1B registrations using their myUSCIS online account and pay the required $10 fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon EST on February 21, 2023.
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