In 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.
Read moreAs we start the processing for the new US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) fiscal year (“FY 2023”), US Citizen and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has confirmed that it has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the H-1B cap limit for fiscal year 2022 (“FY 2022”). This applies to both the 65,000 regular H-1B cap limit as well as the 20,000 advanced degree (masters) cap exemptions. FY2022 runs from Oct. 1, 2021 and ends Sept. 30, 2022. USCIS conducted three rounds of selections from the registrations submitted in March 2021 to reach the FY2022 annual limit and the Service has “completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts.”
Read moreIt’s that time of year again! No, not Valentine’s Day; its H-1B Cap Season! US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) recently announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 H-1B cap will begin at 12pm ET on March 1, 2022, and run through 12pm ET on March 18, 2022. During this registration period, prospective petitioners and their representatives will be able to submit their registrations using their myUSCIS online account and pay the required $10 fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.
Read moreUnited States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that the January 2021 final rule modifying the H-1B selection process has officially been withdrawn by The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). This rule would have eliminated the random selection process known as the H-1B visa lottery, and replaced it with a process prioritizing those foreign nationals who are offered the highest salaries relative to their occupation and geographic area according to the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) prevailing wage system.
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